Athens County newspapers, journalism has void after firings
There is a county in Ohio where news will be harder to come by in the coming weeks.
Nearly every professional journalist working for two newspapers, both owned by Adams Publishing Group, in Athens County has been fired or resigned in protest over working conditions in recent weeks.
In Athens County, home to about 65,000, newspapers are often the only source of local news. Athens does have a PBS-affiliate TV station, but the next closest network TV stations are in West Virginia.
Hundreds of counties all over the country have the same issue, including Klamath County in Oregon. There, the Herald and News, another APG-owned newspaper, just lost its entire staff, according to Jefferson Public Radio.
Ironically, Athens County is home to Ohio University, one of the top journalism schools in the country.
Employees at the Athens News and Athens Messenger, some of whom are OU alums, say the company that purchased the papers in 2014, the Adams Publishing Group, has not supported its employees and shown poor ethics. It’s these issues, they say, that have led to the exodus.
Mark Cohen, president of APG Media of Ohio, declined to comment, saying the company will address the resignations in their paper.
APG operates 27 daily newspapers, more than 90 non-daily, and collectively more than 220 media-related products and associated websites in 20 states, according to its website. The Poynter Institute reported the wealthy Adams family owns the company and has been quietly acquiring newspapers for about the past seven years.
A story about coin ads in The Athens News, Athens Messenger
Until last week, the editor of The Athens News was Corinne Colbert. She started the job last June after a 30-year hiatus from journalism.
In December, the Athens News, the Athens Messenger, and other APG sites began running ads from companies claiming to sell high-value collectible coins.
Colbert was suspicious of the ad and began to do some research. The company buying the ads had an “F” rating from the Better Business Bureau. There were comments online complaining, and she said she even received calls from readers stating they never got the coins they ordered.
Colbert said she presented her concerns to management repeatedly and was told they couldn’t do anything about the ads.
On Feb. 23, she published an article in the Athens News and in the Messenger explaining the ads to readers. Two days later, she said she was fired for failing to follow instructions and violating the company’s social media policy.
“My problem isn’t they fired me for violating the policy. They have every legal right to fire me for that. What I think is wrong is they never said a word about the tweets before. As far as I can see, this was a pretext to get rid of me,” Colbert said.
Colbert said she has posted political tweets and written before about not having enough resources to do her job.
The fallout from the firing
The day Colbert was terminated Cole Behrens, the associate editor of the Athens News and a former Enquirer intern, tweeted that he was now the sole reporter and employee responsible for the paper. Five days later, Behrens announced he resigned.
The editor of the Athens Messenger, Alex Hulvalchick, wrote a resignation letter on Feb. 24.
On March 3, Dani Kington, the associate editor of the Messenger, handed in a letter of resignation.
The staff at the Messenger will soon consist of only a sports editor and photojournalist. The editor of the APG-owned Vinton Courier in neighboring Vinton County, William Meyer, said Thursday he too would be leaving his job.
A revolving door at the Athens News
Ben Peters, a former editor at the Athens News, said if Colbert and Behrens are replaced that will mean the Athens News has had its entire editorial staff turned over three times since 2020.
Hulvalchick said her main reason for resigning as editor was the workload and long hours.
“It’s a job that’s too much for one person to do,” Hulvalchick said. “I reached a point where I felt like I didn’t have any effective resources to do my job.”
She said this situation where a young reporter is hired, overworked and burns out only for a new one to be hired is common in many small newsrooms and should be cause for concern.
“It’s a revolving door, and it hurts readers. I would love if people could work and stay in a community, but how a lot of newsrooms are structured now, it makes that incredibly difficult,” Hulvalchick said.
Colbert said newsrooms are stripped down to bare-bones operations, and employees don’t have the proper resources to complete their jobs. She said she once needed a new chair, and was told: ‘APG doesn’t buy furniture.’
Colbert now hopes to start a non-profit newsroom in Athens modeled after other successes across the country. She believes it’s a sustainable model for local news. She is crowdsourcing funds now for the publication she hopes to call The Athens Independent.
“People want … those in charge of the news to understand their community. It’s exciting, it is daunting, but I have a strong vision for where I want to take this,” Colbert said. “I think this can be the start of a new chapter.”
Enquirer reporter Cameron Knight contributed to this report.
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