As part of a 6% cut across its news division, Gannett, the owner of The Providence Journal, is laying off the paper’s executive editor, David Ng.
Ng, a son of immigrants from Hong Kong, spent most of his career at papers near his native New York City, including Newsday, The Star-Ledger, The New York Post, and The New York Daily News, where he served as executive editor.
In a brief interview, Ng said he had no regrets about coming to Rhode Island to lead the ProJo almost two years ago, at age 62, in January 2021. He said he’s very proud of the work done by the paper’s staff during his tenure and that he’s grateful for the experience.
It’s unclear if other layoffs are taking place at the ProJo, which has been beset by increasing job cuts since the paper was sold by Dallas-based Belo in 2014, initially to GateHouse Media.
GateHouse merged with Gannett in 2019, creating the biggest U.S. newspaper chain, while loading the entity with more than $1 billion in debt.
Gannett spokeswoman Lark-Marie Anton declined to comment on whether there are additional layoffs at the ProJo or Gannett’s newspapers in Newport, Fall River and New Bedford.
“I can confirm that David Ng’s role was impacted by the 6% targeted reduction in the News division,” Anton said via email. “While incredibly difficult, implementing these efficiencies and responding decisively to the ongoing macroeconomic volatility will continue to propel Gannett’s future. Out of sincere gratitude and appreciation to our departing colleague(s), I will not be commenting further.”
(Kevin G. Andrade, a former ProJo reporter, tweeted recently that he was laid off at Southcoast Today in New Bedford.)
It’s unclear how the ProJo’s newsroom will be led with the loss of Ng, in part since one likely successor, Mike McDermott, was named executive editor of the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester last July.
Ng’s layoff was first reported by The Boston Globe.
Under the bygone local ownership of the Metcalf family, The Providence Journal had a surprisingly well-staffed newsroom for a medium-sized daily newspaper. The Dallas-based Belo Corp. bought the Journal Company, which included a number of television stations, for $1.54 billion in 1997.
Job cuts became more frequent after Belo sold the Journal for $46 million in 2014.
Over time, the Journal eliminated jobs for metro columnist, deputy editorial page editor and editorial page editor, among a host of other positions. Daily print circulation, which once topped 70,000 as recently as 2015, is now less than 30,000.
The Journal still has reporters assigned to the Statehouse and covering beats such as the environment and courts, with recently hired reporters Antonia Farzan, Amy Russo and Wheeler Cowperwaite respectively covering investigations, Providence, and housing and development.
Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis@ripr.org
