The new owner of the Portland Tribune and roughly 20 other Oregon newspapers on Tuesday laid off an unknown number of employees, including in its newsrooms.
Carpenter Media Group, which owns 180 publications in the U.S. and Canada, purchased the publications from their local owner, Robert Pamplin Jr., last month. Tuesday’s layoffs, which were confirmed by two sources with direct knowledge of the cuts, include longtime statehouse reporter Peter Wong.
Brian Monihan, a former Pamplin Media Group executive who is now the Oregon regional publisher for Carpenter, declined to comment, citing a Carpenter corporate policy.
When the deal for Pamplin Media Group was announced, Monihan said he expected some “belt tightening,” but he also said the backing from a “stronger media company” would put it on an “even playing field with a lot of our competition.”
At the time, Pamplin employed 110.
EO Media Group, which publishes more than a dozen newspapers across Oregon, also announced layoffs last month, reflecting the continued struggle of local news organizations because of shifts in advertising and news consumption. The Associated Press last year reported that since 2005 the nation has lost two-thirds of its newspaper journalists and one-third of its newspapers.
In addition to the Portland Tribune, the Pamplin sale included The Herald-Pioneer in Canby, the Sandy Post, the Clackamas Review, the Sherwood Gazette, the Columbia County Spotlight, Southwest (Portland) Community Connection, Estacada News, The (Portland) Bee, The News-Times in Forest Grove, The (Washington County) Times, the Gresham Outlook, West Linn Tidings, the Lake Oswego Review, the Wilsonville Spokesman, the Madras Pioneer, the Woodburn Independent, the Newberg Graphic, the Beaverton Valley Times, Oregon City News, and the Central Oregonian in Prineville.
In a statement last month, Pamplin, 82, who founded the Portland Tribune in 2001, said it was time to sell.
“Due to age and health reasons, it made sense to pass the company on to someone else who will carry on the tradition of balanced journalism, the old-fashioned way,” Pamplin said.
Carpenter’s recent acquisitions include Black Press, a Canadian firm that owned The Herald newspaper in Everett, Washington, The Star-Advertiser in Honolulu, the Juneau Empire in Alaska and many smaller publications. In April, Carpenter announced the acquisition of a small Louisiana paper, and last month it bought 10 small newspapers in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
– Matthew Kish covers business, including the sportswear and banking industries. Reach him at 503-221-4386, mkish@oregonian.com or @matthewkish.
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