Fifty more people, most of them from the news room, have been laid off by the Courier-Journal in the latest round of cuts by the Gannett Corporation. That brings the number to 145 since 2008.
Never good when people lose their jobs but there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of sympathy in the community for a publication that once seemed invincible during economic downturns.
Certainly not from University of Louisville fans who have tolerated the overabundance of University of Kentucky coverage for decades, often at the expense of the local university. And definitely not from the fiscally and politically moderate and conservative readers who have been forcefed the liberal bent of the news coverage and opinion pages.
The first person who comes to the oberver’s mind during each of these layoff announcements is sports columnist Eric Crawford. There’s always a sense of relief when his name is not on the list.
The son of former WHAS-TV reporter and CJ columnist Byron Crawford, Eric is arguably the best sportswriter and analyst the newspaper has had since the days of Dave Kindred. He consistently does his research while providing balance and introspective into most issues.
Crawford admitted to me once that he grew up a Kentucky fan in Shelby County, but he has never shown any reluctance to take on Big Blue partisans — or U of L fanatics for that matter — when their institution is on the wrong side of an issue. He challenged, for example, the wisdom of hiring John Calipari when the background was clearly questionable.
We did wonder, however, why he would side with UK against the NCAA on the premature celebration of Calipari’s “500th win” when 42 of those “wins” had been vacated by the governing organization. But for the most part, Crawford is about as objective as they come.
The Courier-Journal/Gannett would be foolish to lay off a personality like Crawford and we don’t honestly expect to see his name on the layoff list anytime soon. If there is one, he would be the indispensable asset, at least for now with the importance of sports in the editorial mix.
But as the number of pages in daily newspapers diminish, along with the width and length of those pages, Crawford has to be thinking about where all of this is leading. The future isn’t great, even for the online edition of the publication. The personal dynamics of his chosen profession are changing in ways he never could have imagined a few years ago, and they are changing very quickly
As he notes in his blog today, “Newspapers are down three touchdowns in the fourth quarter, and the clock is ticking.” Eric is too creative, talented, responsible and savvy not to have a more secure future elsewhere. We will continue to enjoy reading his column for now, and wish him well, now and in the future.
The “center” is far left of most people.
@JustCards: the Courier was a liberal paper long before Gannett bought it. It actually move to the center at that point.
Of course if your standard of reference is Fox “News”, everything else seems far left by comparison.
Eric does a good job and I enjoy his take, usually. I have met him a couple of times and he came across as a down to earth, level-headed guy that tries to stay objective.
He should come write for Card Game if/when the Courier Journal goes under.
It’s not surprising that a liberal leaning, anti-hometown, nationally owned newspaper would experience a lose of readership. I only read the online version and will stop shortly. Slanted “journalism” is just that.
Gannett and the CJ are just more of the same.
JustCards
Fixed:
…the number of pages in daily newspapers diminish, along with the width and length and quality of those pages…
Along with Jody Demling, the Courier has two very good ones with Crawford. Of course, they’ll manage a way to mess that up eventually. In a world full of information sources…print journalism is taking the tumble as people want it immediately…if not sooner.
I suspected he leaned UK all along. But he does attempt to be fair and I enjoy his column.
Good piece, Charlie. Eric is about as good as they come. I’m amazed he hasn’t been picked off yet by ESPN. I suspect he has close ties to the community and really loves his job.