From the oil patch to the people who cover the oil patch—layoffs are hitting the journalists who report on the thousands who lost their jobs at Oklahoma oil and gas companies.
Now someone’s writing about them.
Gannett, owner of at least ten publications based in Oklahoma, started laying off people at its newspapers across the country. The company did not offer an explanation, but it’s apparently in response to the coronavirus pandemic which forced the closing of small businesses nationwide, businesses that are advertisers in Gannett’s ten publications in the state.
When businesses close and have no revenue, they stop advertising and that’s apparently what prompted the newspaper layoffs.
A WARN notice went out Monday from the Oklahoma Office of Workforce Development.
Bill Hancock, the Business Services and Rapid Response Coordinator said, “Most are probably due to overlaps created with the recent Gatehouse merger. I do not know which papers are affected.”
Gannett’s papers in Oklahoma: