The Bloomington Herald-Times building (Steve Burns, WFIU/WTIU News)
The editor and sports editor of The Herald-Times have lost their jobs in the most recent layoffs by Gannett, the newspaper’s owner.
Rich Jackson, whose title was senior executive editor, and sports editor Patrick Beane learned last week that their jobs would be eliminated at the end of this week. Jackson posted on Facebook Friday afternoon that he also had to vacate an apartment in The Herald-Times building on South Walnut Street where he had been living by noon on May 1. Jackson had been editor of The Herald-Times for 10 months. Jackson has started a blog about his experience and says he is now homeless.
"So, I have saved a little money after many struggles decades in the making," Jackson wrote on April 29. "But I need to make those saving last as long as possible as a 54-year-old man seeks a new job in what the Federal Reserve calls the worst economy in American history. That's when I decided to blog this story. For years, I have written or edited hundreds of stories about homelessness. And here I am."
Beane worked Thursday night to layout his final sports section for the H-T. He had been with the newspaper’s sports department for 30 years, and for the last decade or so led the award-winning sports department. He returned from a furlough last week to the news his job would be eliminated on May 1.
The H-T was part of Schurz Communications from 1966 until being purchased by Gatehouse Media, which took over the newspaper on Feb. 1, 2019. Late in 2019, Gatehouse and Gannett merged into the largest newspaper chain in the United States with 261 newspapers in 46 states. Gatehouse actually took over Gannett, but the company goes by the Gannett name.
No one from the H-T has commented on what the new management structure would look like.
