Connecticut’s bleak newspaper market grew even darker last week with news that the Hartford Courant was shedding another 100 workers — about 30 in the newsroom — from its payroll.
That was on the heels of the Feb. 21 bankruptcy filing by the Journal Register Co., parent of the New Haven Register and former owner of dailies in Bristol and New Britain.
Watching fellow Connecticut workers lose their jobs is bad enough. But losing the seasoned eyes, ears and institutional memory of reporters and editors during one of the most tumultuous shifts ever in the history of the global economy should be even more alarming.
This isn’t the first siren to peal on the impact of a shrinking media corps that a free society relies on to be watchdogs on our public institutions and leaders. But it does sound at the very time when state leaders are considering eliminating some public advocacy posts.
With taxpayers under growing pressure to bail out struggling banks and auto companies, while being asked to brace for less from state and local government, the public needs more eyes and ears on their public leaders and institutions, not fewer.
