Lawyer drops suit against newspaper over staff cuts
By Leah McBride Mensching, Monday 28 July 2008 at 22:28 :: Labor & Employment :: #2005 :: rss
A Durham, North Carolina lawyer sued The News & Observer, to which he is a subscriber, last month in an attempt to get the McClatchy Co. newspaper to stop making staff cuts and reducing news coverage. Now, Keith Hempstead has dropped the lawsuit, after his complaint has been covered by several news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio, saying he has made his point.
Hempstead said he chose to sue the newspaper instead of cancelling his subscription to get the newspaper industry's attention, The N&O reported Monday.
“By getting rid of staff, you're producing an inferior product that is dooming the newspaper industry into obsolescence,” Hempstead told The N&O in an interview. “Attempts to fill the news hole with syndicated columnists, wire stories and cheap filler instead of writing from local staff makes the paper like any other news source. It doesn't have a distinctive voice, and readers can go anywhere else to get their news fix.”
Hempstead is a former reporter, and is writing an opinion article for the newspaper. He said he did not sue the newspaper for the money, and had asked for unspecified damages.
Although many called his lawsuit frivolous, Hempstead disagreed.
“By arguing there's nothing to such a complaint, then they are accepting a future of mediocre news,” he said, according to The N&O. “If I didn't bring this up, those people arguing about (the cuts may not have been given a voice.”
In June, McClatchy cut 1,400 jobs across its newspapers, or 10 percent of its workforce.
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