Eagle Tribune Cuts 52 Jobs
Tom Duggan
The Eagle Tribune newspaper,
head-quartered in North Andover and owned
by Alabama-based Community News-paper
Holdings, Inc. announced last week that
at least 52 employees have been laid off
in the largest ever downsizing measure
taken by the company.
In a memo to employees, publisher Al
Getler, a puppet comedian prior to being
hired by the daily newspaper, said the
layoffs were “in response to
difficult market conditions,” and
bragged in the newspaper that the Eagle
Tribune was “the best source of news
and information in the Merrimack
Valley.”
Sources within the newspaper say that the
layoffs affect at least one news reporter
and two copy editors at the North Andover
facility as well as massive cuts in the
newspapers’ circulation department
and layoffs in some of the Tribune’s
weekly newspapers such as the Derry News.
“This was a CYA situation,” one
Eagle Tribune employee told The Valley
Patriot. “Al Getler is trying to
save his own job because his management
of this newspaper has cost us millions
and the only way he could show the
company [in Alabama] that we could be
financially viable was to immediately cut
jobs to balance the books to meet the
company’s financial goals.”
The Rogers family of North Andover had
owned the newspaper since 1898. In 2002,
the Eagle Tribune acquired other daily
papers, including The Salem News, The
Gloucester Daily Times and The Daily News
in Newburyport.
Only a few short months after Chip Rogers
sold The Eagle Tribune newspaper,
employees of the daily paper became
so angry and distrustful of new
management and their lack of job security
that they filed with the Federal Labor Relations
Board to organize a union.
That effort failed by a vote of 82-52 and
employees at the paper say anyone
connected with the union issue “were
weeded out slowly or dealt with
quietly.”
Since the purchase of The Eagle Tribune
on September 30, 2005 by the
Alabama-based Community Newspaper
Holdings, Inc., there have been several
major changes at the paper.
Key changes in personnel stirred things
up immediately at the Tribune including
major managerial changes. Community
Newspaper Holdings, Inc., replaced former
publisher Irving “Chip” Rogers,
III, and William Ketter, editor and vice
president of news who was supposed to be
given what they called “a new
role” in the organization.
Several staffers, who did not want to be
identified by name, confirmed at the time
that several other issues had surfaced
after the newspaper was purchased, such
as Ken Johnson and Bryan McGonigle being
suspended for three days (without pay) in
July 2005 after an e-mail exchange about
the use of racial identities in crime
stories.
The daily newspaper has also been the
subject of controversy since then,
including an erroneous story on the front
page of their Sunday edition claiming one
of their reporters witnessed “men in tyvek suits
removing asbestos” from
the Monarch on the Merrimack building in
Lawrence. Despite the fact that
they retracted the bogus story,
multimillionaire developer and Monarch
owner Bob Ansin said the story cost him a
$40 million investment effectively
shutting down construction on the $200
million revitalization project.
In the last two years readers of the
Eagle Tribune have seen a significant
decrease in news reporting in the
Lawrence, Methuen and Haverhill area as
coverage of communities in southern New
Hampshire have dominated their front page
and local reporting.
Last month, The Valley Patriot revealed
that Eagle Tribune reporter Yadira Betances
had to be forcibly removed from Hanscom
Air Force Base when the body of Sgt.
Jimenez arrived for a wake and funeral
service.
The following day Betances was also
removed from the Jimenez wake at St.
Mary’s Church when she
confronted Jim Wareing of New England
Caring for Our Military, who was tasked
by the Jimenez family to handle the
memorial and funeral services.
Circulation for the Eagle Tribune has
dropped significantly in the Lawrence and
Methuen area including decreases in
subscriptions and distribution in North
Andover and Haverhill area communities.
Last month, the Tribune ran a front page
story revealing the identities and
postings of two Haverhill elected
officials who had anonymously written
messages on the newspapers internet blog
sparking outrage in the news publishing
business.
“What they did was out a source who
posted anonymous messages on their
internet blog,” said Haverhill City
Councilor Jim Donahue who, along with
Haverhill Mayor Jim Fiorentini had posted
messages using pen names with the
expectation of anonymity offered by the
site.
“I don’t see how this is any
different than publishing the names and
pictures of people who call them on the
phone with anonymous tips for news
stories,” Councilor Donahue
continued.
“What is really troubling is that
they were able to, and quite willing to,
investigate the blog postings, track the
messages back to the people who posted on
their website, and then publish that
information in their newspaper. It ought
to make people very nervous about
visiting the site or posting any kind of
messages on their blog whether it’s
a news tip or just their opinions about
their coverage.”
(photo insert of Al Getler with his
monkey puppet from http://algetler.com)
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