The Daily Agenda: Life after layoffs

The big paper in town cut a bunch of jobs a year ago ... Here's what happened next ... One step closer to repealing abortion ban.

This week marks a year since the Arizona Daily Star laid off 10 employees, the latest in a long line of layoffs at the Star and seemingly every newspaper in the country.

But this round of cuts sent a far bigger ripple through the local news scene and changed the media landscape in Southern Arizona.

Ten people lost their jobs at the Star, but in the year since, almost as many new positions have been created at independently owned outlets. And the amount of quality local news being produced on a daily basis has increased.

As we looked around ahead of the anniversary, it was clear a lot has happened since then and much of it has actually been good. But to be clear, 10 people losing their jobs without cause and in the blink of an eye is devastating on a personal and industry level. We want to see our community’s newsrooms adding jobs, not taking them away.

And it hasn’t been all good news for the Star’s parent company, Lee Enterprises, where they’ve started to circle the wagons again to avoid a takeover. We’ll get to that a little later.

Here in Tucson, it’s been business as usual at the Star, which has hired some talented, young reporters. They don’t have as much experience or knowledge of Tucson as the people who were laid off, but they have bright futures and they’re doing well.

But the layoffs didn’t just impact people who worked in the news. It sent a shockwave through the community, with concerned citizens rallying together to find a solution to the downsizing of their local newspaper. The Community Foundation for Southern Arizona launched its Local News Initiative of Southern Arizona last fall and quickly raised almost a quarter-million dollars in funding to help local outlets like ours hire more reporters and produce more news.

Most of the time, people who get laid off don’t get the chance to talk publicly about what happens afterward. But we’re in the news business, so it’s a little different.

As you well know, Curt landed on his feet, joining Caitlin in launching the Tucson Agenda last July. 

“I feel lucky. A lot of people get laid off in the news business and end up doing something completely different. I got to keep reporting and I’m having more fun than ever,” Curt said. “At the same time, getting laid off taught me an important lesson: At the end of the day, it’s all just business.”

While Caitlin’s position wasn’t eliminated during the layoffs, she felt that the decisions being made by the Star’s parent company were no longer representative of what the community needed or wanted when it came to news coverage.

“The elimination of critical positions like opinion editor and closure of the area’s only Spanish-language publication was a wakeup call for me that the ideas I had come to embrace about what local news should do and be were no longer in line with the ideas of the people for whom I worked,” Caitlin said. “The layoffs felt like an opportunity to try something new that I truly believed would be good for our community.”

When it comes to the Agenda, the rest is history. But what about everyone else whose lives changed that day last April?

We reached out to some of our former Star colleagues who were laid off to talk about how their lives had changed over the past year. While several of our former colleagues left the industry, we’re happy to report that many are still involved in journalism and using their expertise to help others.

While former Star Executive Editor Jill Jorden Spitz hasn’t taken a new full-time job yet, she’s been keeping busy with some equally fulfilling work.

“My goal over the past year has been to help where I’m needed, and that has taken me to some great places. I’m on the board of two nonprofits that mean a lot to my family and I have taken on sizable volunteer roles at each of my two kids’ schools,” she said. “I help lead field trips to the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center and I co-lead my daughter’s Girl Scout troop.”

During her time overseeing the Star, Jill worked around the clock, responding to emails long after the rest of us had gone to sleep. We love that she’s able to spend so much more time with her family and on causes that are near and dear to her heart.

But don’t worry, she’s still using her finely-tuned journalism skills to help other reporters (and readers).

“I also stay involved in journalism by serving on the grants committee of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona’s Local News Initiative and helping local news startups, mostly the Tucson Agenda,” Jill said. “And I still read the Star every day and stay in touch with many of my former colleagues.”

Genesis Lara was another casualty of the layoffs. She covered K-12 education for the Star after spending several years working for the Nogales International. Luckily, one door closing was quickly followed by another opening, and Genesis ended up back where she started, but in a much bigger role: She’s now the NI’s managing editor.

“I was really nervous about taking on this new role at the NI, since I had big shoes to fill,“ she said, referencing longtime former Managing Editor Jonathan Clark. “Luckily, I’ve been part of a supportive, hardworking team that’s helped me learn and adjust over the past year.”

We think Genesis is doing amazing work at the NI and regularly include their stories in our “other news” section. And we’re so happy that she stayed in journalism and is continuing to help produce meaningful, impactful coverage.

“I’m grateful to work with such a talented newsroom that believes in true local journalism,” she said. “I hope my former Star colleagues who were affected by the layoffs have also found new jobs they love.”

Along with the overall loss of talent and knowledge that came with the layoffs, one of the most troubling changes was the closure of the Star’s Spanish-language publication, La Estrella de Tucsón, after an almost 19-year run.

This meant the three women working at La Estrella were also on the chopping block, but luckily, the closure wasn’t enough to oust them from the industry altogether.

Liliana Lopez Ruelas, La Estrella’s editor, seized the opportunity to build on her knowledge so that she’d be prepared to make a go of it on her own.

“I am halfway along the path of pursuing a master's degree in bilingual journalism at the University of Arizona, with my sights set on polishing the vision with which to continue informing my community,” she said.

While she works on finishing up her degree, Liliana is also serving the community in a different way with her two new roles that make use of her knowledge and experience with La Estrella.

“I also started a part-time job at Tucson Industrial Development Authority in November, where I work with Latino small business owners. And I am part of the advisory board of the Local News Initiative, which seeks funding for local, independent journalism,” she said.

Susan Barnett, another displaced La Estrella journalist, also decided to go back to grad school after being laid off.

But she’s ready to get back in the game and is joining our team next week as our new part-time reporter. You can meet Susan next Friday, May 3, at American Eat Company, where she’ll be hosting a listening session to gather input about her coverage of elections and politics through the lens of the needs and questions of Hispanic voters. 

So while there’s been plenty of good news for us and many of our friends, over at the Star’s parent company, people are freaking out again.

This time it’s because Quint Digital Ltd, a company based in India, bought 12% of Lee Enterprises’ stock. The Quint people said they planned to keep buying Lee stock, so Lee’s board adopted a shareholder rights plan on March 29, similar to what they did when Alden Global Capital threatened to take over Lee a few years ago.

Details on the plan weren’t immediately available, but shareholders won’t have to wait long to learn more, since Lee has a conference call scheduled for next Thursday.

The Tucson Agenda is a journalist-owned operation, but Lee Enterprises can’t say the same. Are you curious about who owns the company that owns your local paper? If you’re a paid subscriber, stay tuned for a second email with details about the people behind the parent company.

Market rising: The home building market in Tucson is doing well, despite higher interest rates, the Arizona Daily Star’s Gabriela Rico reports. The city saw a 130% increase in permits for new homes so far this year, while the average new home price is holding relatively steady at about $430,000. Analysts said one reason prices are still high is built-for-rent communities popping are up in the Tucson area.

One step closer: The Arizona House voted to repeal the 1864 abortion ban on Wednesday, Axios Phoenix’s Jeremy Duda and Jessica Boehm report. Three Republican legislators joined Democrats in favor of Tucson Democrat Stephanie Stahl Hamilton’s bill to repeal the law. The next step is the Senate vote, which could come as soon as next week.

Virtuous circle: March was the busiest month at the Tucson International Airport in 16 years, Arizona Public Media’s Hannah Cree reports. March is usually the busiest month of the year, but this year the 400,000 passengers who used TIA in March was also because more airlines are adding capacity in the Tucson market, so fewer people had to drive to the Phoenix airport. In turn, that leads to even more service in Tucson in what an airport official called a “virtuous circle.”

Weighing in: Former Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall wrote a scathing opinion piece for the Star, claiming that current Pima County Attorney Laura Conover has failed the community. LaWall highlighted two high-profile cases that she said were mishandled due to Conover’s lack of prosecutorial experience and urged readers to vote for Conover’s opponent, Mike Jette.

Pond problem: Oro Valley Mayor Joe Winfield doesn’t want a pond in the Vistoso Trails Nature Preserve, and neighbors aren’t happy, Tucson Local Media’s Dave Perry reports. The well-known pond used to hold water for the now-defunct golf course. But it is dry now and instead of refilling it, the town council plans to spend close to $1 million to build a desert garden. Most of the 11 residents who addressed the town council said they wanted the pond to be refilled. 

Hung jury: The lawyers of a Nogales rancher accused of fatally shooting a Mexican as he crossed his ranch said the jury split 7-1 in favor of acquittal, the Star’s Emily Bregel reports. Jurors deliberated for 16 hours, but could not reach a unanimous decision on whether to convict George Alan Kelly in the fatal shooting of Gabriel Cuen Buitimea. The judge declared a mistrial and prosecutors are expected to say whether they will retry the case at a hearing Monday. 

2,681: The number of jobs that news companies announced they were cutting last year.