Bay Area News Group is feeling the financial burden that is maintaining viable newspapers in this digital age. Thus, BANG is calling for some major restructuring, namely consolidating their eleven local newspapers into two regional ones and laying off 8% of the staff, around 15o jobs.
Unfortunately one of these local newspapers that is being absorbed into the larger regional paper is The Oakland Tribune, which will be part of the East Bay Tribune. This is more grim news for the world of journalism. All of these changes are taking effect November 2nd. A lot of the money that is currently dedicated to print is being funneled into digital media—iPads and iPhone apps will be getting more focus.
“‘It sounds like with very limited resources, they are trying to put out a better product,’ said Cynthia Gorney, a professor at the UC Berkeley journalism school. ‘Everywhere in the Bay Area, readers are getting frustrated by the drop in local reporters able to cover responsibly the events they care about. I understand that a lot of this is driven by newspaper bewilderment and frustration over how they’ll continue to make money.'”
