The Providence Journal is significantly rearranging how it covers the news, sending Katherine Gregg back to Smith Hill to cover the Statehouse, and reassigning Statehouse reporters Jennifer Bogdan and Patrick Anderson as part of a heightened focus on different Rhode Island municipalities, RIPR has learned.
Broader changes involving coverage and other reporters were announced Monday. They come as Executive Editor Dave Butler gets ready to retire next month. He’ll be succeeded by ProJo veteran Alan Rosenberg.
Sources familiar with the situation say the changes appear aimed at two goals: broadening the ProJo’s coverage to include more news from outside Providence and boosting the paper’s digital coverage, in part through the introduction of a “continuous news desk.”
In a statement to RIPR, Butler said, “With the retirements of 3 veteran editors and 2 veteran reporters, we have made several internal promotions and addressed the resulting impact. My soon-to-be-successor, Alan Rosenberg, is committed to trying, as a first step, an experiment on the digital news desk that we think will improve both our digital and print coverage. He’ll give it 60-90 days and adjust accordingly. We are implementing the same kind of transition that is under way at the [Boston] Globe, Washington Post, The [New York] Times and many other news organizations.”
Butler continued: “Alan will be writing to our readers about our changes as soon as we get more of the pieces in place. We’re fortunate to have lots of talent on the staff. Figuring out how best to use that talent is a primary goal. It’s never easy when you lose so much institutional knowledge, but I’m obviously the last person to discourage people who can retire to do so, or to try something else. They will be missed.”
Word of the coming shakeup reached the newsroom in the days before it was announced. Some reporters are upset by both particular changes and the scope of change.
Reporter John Hill, president of the Providence Newspaper Guild, said one positive is that the coverage changes are being made without layoffs.
“But the Journal has lost three crucial and experienced managers who are not being replaced,” Hill said. “Their work must still be done and will done by people who are already overloaded from the burden of the company’s past greed. It’s yet another instance of GateHouse’s consistent refusal to accept the civic responsibility of owning a newspaper. It is not a noble calling to them. It is just another sponge to squeeze dry.”
Intense coverage of local news throughout Rhode Island was once a trademark at the ProJo, which helped pioneer the use of suburban news bureaus. But those bureaus were eliminated, and the size of the reporting staff repeatedly cut, in the face of sharp reductions in revenue at the Journal (and scores of other newspapers).
Under Butler, the ProJo increased its coverage from more of the communities outside Providence.
Gregg, formerly the Statehouse bureau chief for the Journal and someone who had covered the Capitol for more than 30 years, was reassigned away from Smith Hill last August. The move triggered a backlash from readers and other fans of Gregg’s reporting.
Jacqueline Tempera, who has excelled on the North Providence beat, will join Gregg in reporting from the Statehouse for the remainder of the current session. (The paper typically brings in additional reporters for the waning weeks of the session.) It’s not exactly clear what will happen after that.
Butler said details are still being worked out, adding, “politics and the Statehouse remain a primary focus.”
The Journal moved away from a three-person Statehouse staff when Alisha Pina was briefly assigned to Cranston before her recent exit from the newspaper.
Bogdan, who has done in-depth reporting on medical marijuana and other issues, is being assigned to cover Providence City Hall. Hill, the ProJo’s lead reporter in covering City Hall in recent years, is being reassigned to Cranston.
Meanwhile, Anderson, who has avidly covered transportation and other topics, is being assigned to North Providence and Johnston.
Five newsroom staffers recently signed up for the latest buyout offered by GateHouse Media, the ProJo’s parent: deputy executive editor Peter Phipps; city editor Jack Khorey; business editor John Kostrzewa; and reporters Karen Lee Ziner and Gregory Smith.
This story has been updated. The initial version of this story incorrectly identified how many ProJo reporters would be assigned to the Statehouse on a regular basis.
