We started this newspaper in 2019 because we saw journalism dying here. The Provincetown Banner and the Cape Codder, once robust, were struggling. Word was readers and advertisers didn’t care about local newspapers anymore. We thought the problem was vulture capitalist ownership.
Both of the Outer Cape’s newspapers had been sold to GateHouse Media, controlled by private-equity firm Fortress Investments. GateHouse bought hundreds of papers and systematically squeezed the life out of them, extracting tens of millions for investors and huge executive salaries while newsrooms shrank and closed down. (The New York Times reported this week that Fortress lent Donald Trump $130 million to finance his Chicago tower fiasco and tax fraud scheme.)
The year we launched the Independent, GateHouse bought the Gannett chain and took its name. In the years since, the Banner and Codder have continued to shrivel, and the once vital Cape Cod Times, also now owned by GateHouse/Gannett, is on life support.
Last year, Gannett announced a new strategy: to combat its mounting losses, it would invest in hiring hundreds of local reporters for its smallest papers, many of which, like the Banner, now have no editorial staff at all. But on May 1, Rick Edmonds of the Poynter Institute, a journalism research center, reported that Gannett had quietly “hit the brakes” on that promise. He cited a confidential source inside the company, an editor who told him that the pause had “created chaos for people like her. Editors, spread thin and scrambling to oversee several papers at once, are not getting the relief they’d anticipated.” With hiring on hold, “the solution for all these ghost newsrooms is put off indefinitely,” she told Edmonds.
Eight days later, Edmonds reported that his source, Sarah Leach, a talented editor who managed 26 Gannett-owned community papers, had been fired for revealing “proprietary” information to a reporter for “a competing media company.” That infuriated the Poynter researcher.
Gannett would not tell Edmonds how the company had identified her as his source. “As best Leach and I can figure, they must have tapped into her office email,” he wrote. “Gannett’s top management extols itself for its commitment to excellent journalism while deploying espionage on its own employees? What a bunch of phonies.”
Leach issued a statement after being fired, saying she wasn’t bitter. “Let’s use this moment as a catalyst for a critical conversation about local media outlets and the audiences they serve,” she wrote. “There has been an unprecedented loss of journalists and community newspapers across the country, and news deserts are growing larger and more numerous.”
We believe local ownership is the starting point for small newspapers that deserve and get the support of readers and the business community. Those of you who invested in the Indie through our direct public offering will hear more on that subject at this Sunday’s annual shareholders meeting. The short version: We’re optimistic about the future of journalism here.
