Express-Times/lehighvalleylive.com Eliminating Jobs

Thursday, April 03, 2014- By Express-Times Staff-- "Sixty-eight Lehigh Valley Media Group employees are losing their jobs later this year as part of a larger reorganization plan being implemented by the company’s owners, company executives."

This represents nearly half the staff of 155. Hearing this news is disappointing. The Express-Times/Lehigh Valley Live.com have been doing a great job reporting not only in the Easton and Bethlehem areas but Allentown as well. It's a shame it has come down to this.

In the late 60's I had the opportunity to apply for a job in what was then the broadcast newsroom for WEEX (1230AM) located inside this newspaper's building. I can still remember the flurry of activity in the row after row of desks on several floors. This is when the news industry was still at it's height. Quite frankly I felt overwhelmed by it all. Though I was called back several times, I felt this was a job best left for the older more experienced. Besides I didn't want to be just a newsreader on the 1/2 hours I don't think my interviewer was all that disappointed either :-)

The Beginning Of The End
WEEX was 'top 40' at that time and was owned by the 'Express of Easton' ('Easton Express' as some of the locals called it). As a result WEEX had a great advantage in reporting the news over nearly all the other local radio stations in the Lehigh Valley (except for WGPA). Very little of the 'Express' building has changed since then, but nearly everything else has.

WEEX hasn't been owned by the newspaper since 1980. This was a result of the FCC changing the rules disallowing newspaper publishers to own radio or TV stations. The 'Globe-Times' newspaper in Bethlehem was also forced to sell off WGPA too. Just like the 'Philadelphia Inquirer' had to sell off it's WFIL radio & WFIL (TV6) broadcasting stations

Losing the revenues coming in from the broadcast stations struck a large blow to the newspaper publishers. What followed was a steady stream of mergers with small newspaper publishers no longer able to cope with the lost radio & TV revenues. Two years after having to sell off WEEX the 'Express Times' of Easton merged with the former 'Globe-Times of Bethlehem in 1982. Hence the name was changed to 'The Express-Times'. The 'Express-Times' itself was sold by 'Easton Publishing' in 1983 just one year later. Then again in 1994. Lastly to it's current owner 'Advance Publications' in 2000.

In The Best Interest To The Public
Back in early days at license renewal the FCC required broadcasters to indicate how each station could best serve local listeners in the coverage areas over that of what a rival could who was seeking to grab the license from it's current owner. There's no question about it, the newspapers had that going for them hands down.

After the break up, broadcasters couldn't afford to pay news and sports reporters on their own. Instead they relied on AP & UPI teletype machines. These were fed news stories by the newspapers. Of course newspapers never fed their investigative or exclusive by-lined material to the machines. By uncoupling the newspapers, radio became little more then jukeboxes that no longer could provide the kind of information publishers once did.

Hence we have had not just the downfall of news publishers but radio itself. All the local stations are owned by either one or the other of two corporations. All the programs except for a couple of hours are fed by satellite from thousands of miles away. Computerized announcements are tossed in occasionally to give the appearance as if someone is actually in the main studio locally.

This is exactly what is now happening to our so-called local newspapers. Local newspaper reporters (what's left of them) are now left only with a template containing a few blank columns to fill in for their reporting. These templates come from one single corporate center far away. The major portion of newspaper content is preprinted ahead of time on presses located out of town. Except for a few pages that are inserted in-between, there's very little local about them anymore.

Its gotten so bad that it's come down to this

I tried to stop the Morning Call from throwing what has become nothing more then a 'for-free' circular on my front lawn 4 days a week to no avail so far. This is even worse then receiving junk mail. At least with junk mail it doesn't litter my lawn. Could you only imagine what would happen if I printed out my blog and threw it on their sidewalk four days a week!

I truly don't know what will happen after local independent investigative reporting is eliminated altogether. One thing is certain. After hearing yet another round of layoffs, I won't have a long wait to find out.

Newspapers- The Good Ole' Days

sigh :-(