Eugene weekly., January 17, 2019, Page 13, Image 13

read stories and based on their knowledge, were able to ask questions of the reporters, to
fill holes.”
Another recent spelling mishap from a house ad in The Register-Guard that led to
public ridicule exemplified what happens without a careful attention to copy editing. In
November, the paper ran an announcement about its new columnists in which “community,”
“contributors” and “columnists” were spelled “communicty,” “contrubutors” and
“colunmists.”
Freelance Contract Changes
The RG has made changes to freelance contracts as well. Leigh Anne Jasheway is a
former humor columnist for the paper who wrote her column, “Laugh With Leigh Anne,”
for 10 years before she was presented with a new freelance contract.
If Jasheway signed the contract, she would be agreeing to let GateHouse own the rights
to all of her stories, possibly using them in syndication in other papers “in perpetuity,
without any payment to the Journalist other than as specified in this Agreement.”
Payment for freelancers would be reduced, too.
Jasheway says that after reading the new freelance contract, she quickly decided not to
sign it. “They’re getting more rights to use my work for less money. It was a no-brainer.”
This new contract shows a lack of respect for journalists, Jasheway says, and she
considered its impact on writers with less experience.
“I’m always trying to be aware of how this sets a bad precedent for other writers,” she
says. “I have been writing for a long
time. If I allow them to do this to
me, that says to the younger people
coming up that this is the norm.”
Many people with experience
at The Register-Guard look back
with nostalgia, especially given
the current operating system at
the paper. Don Bishoff is a former
RG employee who worked as a
newsroom columnist, along with
other positions over the 38 years
he worked at the paper. He thinks
highly about his time at the RG,
especially at the beginning.
“Shortly after I got here, I
realized I’d died and gone to
heaven. It was that kind of an operation. The newsroom didn’t have any kind of budget —
we spent what we had to cover the news,” Bishoff says. “That feeling prevailed for at least
25 to 30 of those years.”
Bishoff sees these changes as unavoidable under GateHouse.
“I think what was once a wonderful paper and a wonderful place to work has obviously
fallen on hard times,” he says. “It’s a shame, but I don’t know if there could have been
another outcome — absent a wealthy benefactor here in town who would buy the paper.”
It’s difficult to know how many people left the RG on their own accord after the
GateHouse acquisition as opposed to being laid off for budget cuts.
“People started to protect themselves with language,” Buckwalter says. He says that
some retirements, including that of former Managing Editor Dave Baker, may not have
been completely voluntary.
“I will always wonder if they just got the word on high from GateHouse Media that we
don’t want anything from the past here,” he says.
readers. That effort includes broadening topics, encouraging more diverse voices and
reaching out to the community in ways we previously haven’t.”
Bath writes that more is to come, though she doesn’t specify what.
“We’re not ready to reveal all of what is in store. But what we can say is the mission
behind the effort is to provide all members of our community with a welcoming venue by
which to express a diverse selection of thoughts, ideas, comments and opinions.”
The aforementioned anonymous RG insider says this change is not positive.
“There has been this strong bond between many residents of this community and their
newspaper, and it’s hard for see these folks to see this newspaper in what they consider a
state of decline based on the amount of space devoted to opinions,” he says.
The RG did publish a short letter responding to Bath’s Sept. 2 editorial that had some
pretty scathing things to say about the editorial changes, calling them “Orwellian.” The
main consensus was confusion — how would reducing the editorial content help encourage
more diverse voices?
“So, you are reducing the opinion section by 50 percent so you can include more topics
and different voices,” Eugenean Carolyn Wade says in her letter to the editor.
In September 2018, EW reported about speculation that the “Our View” editorials the
Guard was running — seemingly without an editorial staff — were being outsourced to
Portland-based company Opinion in a Pinch, a service that, according to its website, can
“help you produce the right editorial, column, white paper or press release to achieve your
goals” if you tell them the “topic, your opinion and how many words.”
Chris Trejbal, the founder of the company, would not disclose client information at the
time, and he says he has nothing
to add now. But EW was able
to confirm with several sources
who did election endorsement
interviews with the RG editorial
board that Trejbal phoned into the
interviews.
Meanwhile, the paper has added
four new community columnists
to the opinion pages. Alaí Reyes-
Santos, Juan Carlos Valle, Ryan
Radloff and Connor Gabor, who
vary in age, gender and race,
will be writing monthly opinion
columns. None are professional
journalists. It is unclear, however,
whether they will be getting paid or
if they’re working pro bono. None of them accepted an interview request.
“I’m actually not authorized to talk about that (I don’t know why) but if you want you
can talk to Shanna Cannon,” Gabor writes in response to an interview request. Neither Bath
nor Cannon responded to questions on the subject.
Since Wilson's departure the opinion pages have been without an editorial page editor.
Anna Glavash, a recent UO journalism graduate student, has worked since September as the
associate editor of the editorial section, but the RG has been advertising to hire a superior.
“We have a job posting for our Opinion Page Editor and filling that position is a priority,”
Cannon emails. “Once we have him or her in place we’ll be better positioned to answer
what changes will be implemented as we intend to have the Editor fully involved in that
process.” As of press time, this position does not appear to have been filled.
Before GateHouse took over, the editorial and news staff at
The Register-Guard was much larger. In the staff directory
from December 2017, 42 people were listed in the news
section. Today, there are 26, though based on bylines in the
paper, the number may not be accurate.
The Death of the Opinion Section
The Register-Guard used to be known for its editorials and large quantity of letters to
the editor. The amount of opinion content has been vastly reduced since GateHouse took
over, and insider reactions are mostly negative.
Some of Bishoff’s discontent with the newspaper comes from this lack of editorial
content. “The only theory I can come up with is that they are so inept and so focused on
cost-cutting that they are gutting some of the parts of the paper that shouldn’t be gutted,” he
says. “You have to figure that most of the decisions aren’t being made here, they’re being
made at corporate headquarters.”
The departure of Jackman Wilson, former editorial page editor, last summer was
particularly controversial. Wilson wrote a final editorial to mark his departure, focusing
on the importance of community activism and hoping that his editorials had contributed to
action and understanding. The RG did not publish it. With his permission, former Mayor
of Eugene Kitty Piercy posted his final editorial on Facebook, and from there EW ran it
online.
Piercy’s post garnered hundreds of comments, many from community members sharing
their thoughts on the reduction of the editorial pages and opinion columns. Alison Bath,
the recently hired RG editor, did not respond to EW’s requests for comments, but she did
publish a Sept. 2 editorial about the reduction of opinion content in the RG.
“Today, regular Register-Guard readers will notice there are fewer pages of opinion/
editorial content that what we’ve traditionally offered on Sundays,” Bath writes. “The
changes are part of an overall strategy to better improve the opinion/commentary we offer
Future of Local Journalism
Nobody knows what to expect for the future. Kuttner says that it is up to readers and
community members to restore local ownership by pushing on GateHouse’s bottom line.
“Put pressure on GateHouse to sell it to local ownership,” Kuttner says. “They’re not
sentimental about it, it’s just a business.”
Finding a newspaper angel has worked for some newspapers — Jeff Bezos’ ownership
of The Washington Post is one example. But if, as Bishoff puts it, a wealthy benefactor isn’t
interested or can’t buy the paper — which seems to be the case in Eugene — GateHouse
will maintain ownership.
“If you look at the national level, if you look at what’s happening with The New
York Times or The Wall Street Journal or The Washington Post, they are all sustainable
operations,” Gleason says. “There are ways to make this work. We just haven’t figured it
out for local journalism.”
Newspapers have had a difficult time sorting out how to profit from digital advertising.
To get well-written and researched articles, readers need to pay for the news they consume,
whether its online or in print.
While GateHouse and the RG may defend themselves against criticism of their
journalistic intentions, people whose jobs were affected by the sale tend to disagree.
Experts suggest that outsourcing material and centralizing editing is probably not the best
way to maintain the quality and local flavor of a local paper.
There may be hope. The Mail Tribune in Medford was purchased from GateHouse by
local Rosebud Media in June 2017 after about four years of GateHouse ownership.
So, who wants buy back The Register-Guard? If you value keeping local journalism
local — and keeping corporations and their uncertain agendas out — that may be what
needs to be done.■
eugeneweekly.com • January 17, 2019
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