Media: Journal Star losing two reporters
A source at the Peoria Journal Star tells me that reporters Frank Radosevich II and Erinn Deshinsky are going to be leaving the paper. No word on their future plans.
Radosevich II, who covers East Peoria and the health/medical beat, leaves in January. Deshinsky is the nighttime police reporter and is gone next week.
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And there’s no word on from GateHouse on whether they will replace one, both or neither of them.Â
My two cents: I wouldn’t count on GateHouse replacing any. I hear that the entire company went into recession mode several months ago, and they weren’t keen on replacing personnel to begin with.
My source says morale is low, but there’s still a core of dedicated journalists who strive to keep the public informed. But anyone who thinks Peoria’s only daily newspaper of record can keep shedding front-line Journalists without suffering from a loss of quality is fooling themselves.
Unless you’ve worked as a reporter, you really don’t realize how much time and effort it takes to produce a good newspaper. That means there needs to be enough reporters on hand to do enterprise reporting AND to make that second, third or fourth phone call, or better yet, to do the interview in person.
I’m guessing the Journal Star has enough reporters to fill the newshole. But as long as there’s wire copy and press releases that can be usec instead of original reporting, the powers-that-be will keep trying to discover what that minimum number of reporters really is.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Gatehouse HATES reporters…wat they like is ad sales people and managers…there are Gatrehouse papers that have one manager for every three people in the news operation
December 13th, 2008 at 3:10 am
Both are very thorough, hard working, and dedicated to reporting to the public what has occurred. We wish them all the best in whatever the future may hold. Good luck and thank you for all the ino you passed on wherever you maybe or go!
God Bless!