Rumors have been flying for a while now about job losses at The Virginian Pilot. Saturday’s paper will have the story but the details are online now: 125 jobs plus a reduction in the size of the newspaper and other cost-cutting measures.
The Pilot newsroom will lose 15 employees, with a combined 297 years of service, editor Denis Finley said.
[…]
Most of the 15 are editors and managers, Finley said. “One of the goals,” he said, “was to keep as many reporters on the street as possible.”
That a lot of institutional memory out of the door. And that is a tremendous loss to this community.
I have had my disagreements with The Pilot. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think they are a valuable resource. As long time subscriber, I never leave the house in the morning without reading at least the Hampton Roads section. (Lately, the front page has actually been worth reading, too.) Part of the reason I’ve been so hard on The Pilot is because the paper plays a vital role and has the capacity to be the source of local news and information. Perhaps a leaner, more focused newspaper will be the result. Of course, with a sale pending, who knows what The Pilot will look like in the future.
Heading towards the holidays, my thoughts are with those who are leaving the paper, whether voluntarily or involuntarily.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Here’s a pretty good example of where they’re deliberately shooting themselves in the foot:
http://hamptonroads.com/node/488752
Once again, Bob Molinaro uses the limited space in his column to diss soccer and those who follow it. If his readers don’t know anything about soccer, maybe that’s because he and the Pilot refuse to offer any actual information about it, instead just reverting to their usual inane rant against it.
Or maybe people who do like soccer, and who don’t like being dissed, just go elsewhere to any of the more convenient, timely, and less snotty sources of the information they seek.
Thousands of kids and young adults in the Hampton Roads area play and follow soccer at every level. Over the last few years, the Pilot has gone out of its way to deliberately alienate this potential readership. It treats these citizens as if they’re organizing youth gangs instead of engaging in and watching the world’s most popular sport. Is it any wonder that no one pays attention to what the Pilot has to say?
If the current management is any indication, Molinaro will get a raise in order to continue spouting his drivel, and more talented and in-touch writers will unfortunately be laid off. The Pilot has no one to blame for its fate but itself. If you offer what the public wants, the public will read your paper. If you insult them, they won’t. It’s that simple.