Plain Dealer Dealing Less to Clevelanders; Massive Layoffs & Reduced Home Delivery

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Cleveland, Ohio's second largest city and the nation's 45th largest city, deserves better.

New York-based Advance Publications yesterday pink-slipped 50 newsroom employees at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, one-third of its editorial workforce, as the daily prepares next week to reduce home delivery to four days a week, according to reports by the Associated Press and Crain's Cleveland Business.

Last year, the Plain Dealer slashed its newsroom personnel by a third, from 168 to 110 employees (see "TUOL" post 12/7/12). Business Editor Randy Roguski was among the Newspaper Guild member photogs, page designers and reporters who received a fateful phone call yesterday cutting them loose. The paper plans to publish a six-page supplement this Sunday outlining proposed changes, according to Crain's.

Among those changes will be home delivery of the paper only on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Some of the staffers laid off may re-apply for jobs with the Northeast Ohio Media Group, a new digital-emphasizing entity responsible for providing content for Cleveland.com and for handling the Plain Dealer's marketing and ad sales.

The AP article reports the Plain Dealer's weekday circulation is roughly 286,000.

Teen's Libel Suit Against Blogger Dropped--Posters Retain Anonymity

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The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported this week a settlement under which a 16-year-old Steubenville (Ohio) high school football player and his parents dismissed with prejudice their defamation claim against a blogger and two anonymous posters who commented about the alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl last August.

Two pseudonymous commenters on Alexandria Goddard's blog, prinniefied.com, alleged that the 16-year-old player should face consequences for his purported involvement in the attack, prompting the libel claim. Goddard fought efforts by the youth and his parents to obtain the identities of the anonymous posters.

Two of the youth's football teammates are facing rape charges in a trial next month, according to the Plain Dealer article. The plaintiff was not charged and claims he was not present when the alleged incident occurred.

Pursuant to the agreement reached by the parties, besides dropping the lawsuit, the youth posted an apology on prinniefied.com, expressing regret for tweeting vulgar remarks and a photo of the alleged victim. Goddard blogged that neither she nor the anonymous commenters professed to have evidence that the plaintiff was directly involved in the alleged assault.

Attorneys who represented Goddard and the unnamed posters pro bono, haled the outcome of the case as a victory for the First Amendment.

Cleveland Journos Deal with Plain Truth: Cuts Loom

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A crippling decrease in advertising revenue underlies massive cuts planned at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which may see the Advance Publications-owned daily's workforce reduced by one-third from 168 to 110, beginning in May 2013.

Crain's Cleveland Business this week reported that the Newspaper Guild chapter that represents the daily was told by management that the staff shrinkage would be accomplished through pink slips and job offers from Cleveland.com, which operates the daily's Web site. The Crain's article indicated that the Plain Dealer may follow the path of other Advance-owned dailies, such as the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and reduce its publishing schedule to thrice weekly, on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

The Plain Dealer's staff size presently is frozen by a contractual agreement that expires January 31.

UPDATE: Judge No Longer 'Suits' Plain Dealer

Image via WikipediaCuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold and her daughter have ended their invasion of privacy suit against Advance Internet, an affiliate of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, over the publisher's Internet "outing" of pseudonymous comments by Saffold's daughter from the judge's computer regarding an ongoing murder trial. (See "TUOL" posts 4/8/10 & 3/26/10).

Associated Press reports that the judge reached an undisclosed financial settlement of a $50 million suit filed after the publication identified anonymous comments posted by lawmiss. Several of the comments traced to Judge Saffold's computer concerned Anthony Sowell, who is accused of the serial killing of 11 women.The resolution purportedly involves a charitable donation made by Advance on the judge's behalf.

UPDATE: Judge & Daughter Sue Plain Dealer for Outing Anonymous Posts

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Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold and her daughter Sydney Saffold have filed a $50 million suit against Advance Publications, owner of The Cleveland Plain Dealer, alleging the media defendant conspired to violate the privacy policy of its Web site, www.cleveland.com, by identifying anonymous comments by "lawmiss," a user name linked to the plaintiffs (see "TUOL" post 3/26/10).

The suit, which was filed in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, accuses the media defendant of engaging in a "vendetta" in its quest to identify the users of the registered "lawmiss" cleveland.com account after one anonymous posting questioned the mental health of Plain Dealer reporter James Ewinger's relative. Sydney Saffold has acknowledged writing some of the anonymous comments under the "lawmiss" moniker, but her mother the Judge has denied authoring comments.  The Plain Dealer claims a handful of "lawmiss"'s comments concern cases over which the judge  has presided.

A Plain Dealer affiliate, Advance Internet, created cleveland.com's privacy policy, which states in part: "We reserve the right to use the information we collect about your computer, which may at times be able to identify you, for any lawful business purpose." Plaintiffs' counsel concedes that Judge Saffold and her daughter share the "lawmiss" account, but claims the AOL Email address linked to the account was established by Judge Saffold's former husband for the entire family's use.

Apparently, the plaintiffs' ardor for preserving Internet blogger anonymity only goes so far; the Complaint seeks to unmask "John Does" who criticized the judge in online comments and has named the "Does" as defendants. "TUOL" does not believe that the old adage attributed to politicians that "no publicity is bad publicity," does not extend to jurists.

Plain Dealer IDs Anonymous Poster on Website

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Academics, media ethicists and others are weighing in on the firestorm created by Ohio's largest newspaper, the Advance Publications-owned Cleveland Plain Dealer, when it identified a blogger whose anonymous posts on cleveland.com included one that questioned the mental stability of a Plain Dealer reporter's relative.

A comment by "lawmiss" on the paper's Web site concerning the mental state of a relative of reporter James Ewinger was removed as violating the site's policy against personal attacks. Editors investigated and discovered "lawmiss" shared an Email address with Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold, and noted that a handful of "lawmiss" posts commented on cases heard by Judge Saffold.

Judge Saffold denied sending the posts, but her daughter, Sydney Saffold, admitted to authoring at least a handful of the roughly 80 "lawmiss" comments found on the site. Journalism ethicist Bob Steele of the Poynter Institute criticized the Plain Dealer's conduct, noting that neither any threat of danger to anyone nor any inkling of judicial misconduct were in evidence to warrant uncloaking the anonymous blogger. Online privacy advocate the Electronic Frontier Foundation also took the media outlet to task for the "chilling effect on conversation" the revelation of  "lawmiss" might have.

On the other hand, Editor & Publisher commentator Shawn Moynihan backed the newspaper's action, saying the public's right to know trumped the right of "lawmiss" to hurl anonymous brickbats. The Plain Dealer defended itself by arguing the newsworthiness of someone using the Email address of a sitting judge to comment on issues of public concern.

"TUOL" sides with the Poynter Institute on this one. The First Amendment free speech/free press provision protects anonymous speech. Secondarily, "TUOL" is all for crusading newspapers, but gets a bit uncomfortable when the precipitating action that gets the newspaper's dander up is an attack on "one of its own." That's not what the old rubric about comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable is all about.