On Monday WBBM-Channel 2, Chicago's CBS affiliate, followed the trend in media today by downsizing. We've all heard this story before, but this one is different because it involved some of the station's top anchors. Diann Burns, the highest paid anchor in Chicago, along with lead sportscaster Mark Malone, longtime anchor and correspondent Mary Ann Childers, reporter Katie McCall and 14 others all lost their jobs. It seems that downsizing broadcasting outlets will now join print publications.
This is a real shame. What is striking about this is that some of the more recognizable names lost their jobs, as opposed to newspapers, where the longtime staff members retain employment. It's easy to see why these journalists lost their jobs, as they were probably making more money than others at the station. It is easier to let Burns go, as her contract expires, and hire someone else who would not be earning the same $2 million that she was. Financially it makes sense, but is it worth it to let such valuable journalists go?
The newspaper business has been cutting people for some time now. The New York Times let several members of their team go last year, as did the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Tribune Company has made many large changes in the last few years. New ownership has brought the future of the company into question, which holds many media outlets, including WGN radio and TV. But the Tribune Company received the most attention when it greatly downsized the Los Angeles Times newsroom about two years ago.
Everyone within the journalism field knows what is going on and not how to fix it. Ron Magers, anchor for Chicago's ABC affiliate WLS-Channel 7, sees the issue and has a positive vision.
"The hope I hold onto is that we will all be reporting something somewhere somehow. We just don't know what platform," Magers said.
I think he's right, and that's what we need to think about. People will always need the news and the people who bring it to them, no matter the medium. The news doesn't necessarily need to be delivered by paper, or broadcasted, but the news needs to be delivered.
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