We’re offering a slight break from TGIF’s usual format this week with a look back at how 12 of the big questions of Rhode Island politics played out in 2012. As always, feel free to share your thoughts and comments on the blog or by email: idonnis (at) ripr (dot) org.
Question 1. Will Governor Lincoln Chafee offer a more coherent message that helps lift his slumping approval rating?
David Scharfenberg has a timely Providence Phoenix story on steps to make the Providence Journal more competitive as it — like other newspapers — wrestles with a soft ad market and an inexorable decline in print readership.
Three of the Providence Journal’s best photographers — Connie Grosch, John Freidah and Ruben W. Perez — are among the layoffs at the ProJo, RIPR has learned.
The newspaper says 23 people have lost their jobs.
Grosch is well known for her coverage of the Statehouse. She’s been a mainstay of the Smith Hill media for many years, offering insight into the human quality of politics through her photography.
The Providence Journal reports that it has eliminated 23 jobs, including 16 Providence Newspaper Guild positions, following up on plans to cut spending at the statewide daily by $1.2 million.
The cutback represents 5 percent of The Journal’s work force. The reductions come about two months after 11 employees accepted a voluntary separation offer.
The once firmly Republican editorial page of the Providence Journal is going in a different direction after backing a string of Democratic candidates, throwing its support to Brendan Doherty in the down-to-the-wire race with David Cicilline.
Doherty’s campaign, via a news release, offers this commentary: