“As goes journalism, so goes the community,” the Feb. 26 panel on the state of Springfield news media, is set for rebroadcast on NPR Illinois Monday at noon and 7 p.m. It’s worth a listen, with comments from representatives of Newschannel 20, NPR Illinois, Illinois Times (me) and the State Journal-Register. Most interesting was Jason Piscia, managing editor of the SJ-R, who said when he started at the paper 20 years ago there were 60 people in the newsroom, and after Gatehouse took over about 2007 the copy desk and page design functions were moved to Texas, leaving 40 in the newsroom. Now, he said, there are 20 in the SJ-R newsroom, seven of whom are reporters. “We’ve all become very resourceful,” Piscia added. The full program is also available for viewing at nprillinois.org. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and CEO
This article appears in Mar 7-12, 2019.
