'No more real newspaper' in Worcester
Cuts turning Telegram into a ghost newspaper
THE GHOST NEWSPAPER ERA has arrived in Massachusetts, and the worst is almost certainly yet to come.
The state has not yet been hit with vast news deserts, the term of the media moment to describe areas without any newspaper presence following the closure of more than 1,800 US papers since 2004. But the land is becoming so parched of substantive news coverage as to make it the next closest thing. Ghost newspaper is the label researchers are using for publications that still churn out a daily issue, but one that is a shell of its former self.
The latest chapter in the relentless hollowing out of Massachusetts media came with news that columnist Clive McFarlane, a 26-year veteran of the
Worcester Telegram, was shown the door. The
Worcester Business Journal says he was one of six staffers let go at the paper.
The news prompted a blunt assessment from Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty. There is no more real newspaper in the city of Worcester, he told a local radio show.
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https://commonwealthmagazine.org/economy/no-more-real-newspaper-in-worcester/