The Phoenix

Journal kills zoned editions, bureaus

Somewhere, Sevellon Brown is weeping. A memo distributed to Journal employees:

October 10, 2008

TO ALL EMPLOYEES:

Today, we published our final regional zone sections (North, Metro, West Bay, East Bay & Massachusetts and South County). Starting Tuesday, October 14th, we will publish one comprehensive newspaper with all the local, state, regional, national and international news.

A notice on the front of today’s zones informed readers of this change. We also will print a reminder on page one next Tuesday. Should you get customerinquiries regarding the change, please refer the calls to a customer service voice mailbox at extension 7364.

As a final note, we will close our South County and East Bay offices and move the employees to Fountain Street.

Published Oct 10 2008, 02:49 PM by Ian Donnis

Monique said:

Scary. With the eyes of the state's largest newspaper withdrawn from the local level, this gives an upper hand to michief-minded politicians around the state.

October 10, 2008 9:45 PM
Kristen said:

I disagree with Monique. The Journal hasn't covered - I mean really covered - municipal governments outside the cities for years now. It's long been known in the far reaches of the state that if you want local news, you go to the weeklies. The Journal has been pulling back coverage slowly for several years, covering only the occasional meeting and following up on/regurgitating news the local weeklies reported weeks earlier. Long gone are the days of the statewide newspaper; this just makes it "official."

October 14, 2008 4:27 PM