Messenger Post lays off journalists at Monroe County weeklies

Messenger Post Media laid off a huge swath of the full-time reporting staff at its eight weekly newspapers serving communities in Monroe County on Friday.

The layoffs affected just a handful of reporters. But those reporters represented virtually the totality of the newsgathering operation, with each acting as one-person traveling bureaus that sometimes churned out as many as a dozen stories a week.

This week's edition of the Henrietta Post, for example, contains stories about the town supervisor's election, an elementary school honoring veterans, the opening of a new restaurant and a theater review, all under the same byline. That reporter also wrote a piece about a cancer fundraiser that appeared in at least two of the weeklies.

The affected newspapers were the Brighton-Pittsford Post, Fairport-East Rochester Post, Gates-Chili Post, Greece Post, Henrietta Post, Irondequoit Post, Penfield Post and Webster Post.

The Messenger Post Media regional editor, Allison Cooper, who oversees the news operation for the weeklies, declined to comment, referring questions to the publisher, Richard Procida. Messages left for Procida were not returned.

James Battaglia, who writes primarily for the Greece and Gates-Chili newspapers, said in a telephone interview that he was one of what he believed were five reporters who were let go. The eight weeklies employed four general assignment news reporters and two sports reporters, according to an online company directory.

Battaglia said he and the others were informed that they would be working until the end of the month, and that managers said they had developed "alternative newsgathering solutions" for the weekly papers.

"It's not really a surprise in this business when this happens," Battaglia said.

On Twitter, at least one other reporter, Bethany Young, who covers Rochester's eastern suburbs, thanked followers for tweets of encouragement, saying, "My colleagues and I appreciate the support."

Messenger Post Media is a division of Perinton-based GateHouse Media Inc., which in September filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to eliminate $1.2 billion in debt the company was to have to pay in 2014. Last week, a federal judge signed off on the bankruptcy plan.

GateHouse runs 78 daily publications and hundreds of weekly newspapers and media websites across the country. Locally, its most prominent publication is the Daily Messenger in Canandaigua, Ontario County.

All newspapers have been hit by the technological shift in the media industry, but weekly community newspapers in some markets have proven themselves remarkably resilient.

"It troubles me a bit because when I go to conferences, I hear that smaller newspapers are the ones succeeding," said Marsha Ducey, an assistant professor of journalism at The College at Brockport. "Of all the other newspapers in the area, I would have thought of those as being the last to have layoffs."

DANDREATTA@DemocratandChronicle.com

Twitter.com/david_andreatta