The Extinction of Journalism

8 min readDec 4, 2020

The following article is about the massive layoff of journalist by media companies in Puerto Rico. It was writen as an university assignment on April 12, 2019.

Every time we see more layoffs in journalism. 2018 is considered the worst year for the communications media (television, radio, magazines, music, print communications, among others) since 15,474 jobs were eliminated in the United States and 11,878 were dismissed in news organizations.

This is due to the fact that there is no sustainable way to maintain the communication media since each medium receives money from many sources of income that are not sustainable. A good example of these was when the classifieds on web platforms arrived, this had a direct impact on the written media since many depended on the sale that was made in the newspaper’s classifieds.

If this is emerging in the United States, how then is the Puerto Rican media being impacted? The firings of journalists in Puerto Rico are like a silent murderer because the mass media do not give it the necessary emphasis and prefer to give importance to other issues that are not really important.

Note to self: I was only able to get three significant moments where there were mass layoffs in the media in Puerto Rico.

2014

At the end of 2014, the Univision network fired 109 employees suddenly by closing all its departments, leaving ‘Las Noticias’, one of the most important news media on the island, on the streets. The executive vice president of the channel, Jaime Bauzá said ,

“We will continue and enhance our 12-year legacy of serving our audiences, customers, and partners by bringing our teams together to deliver the best content, while focusing more on the community. We are confident that by changing the schedule of Rubén’s program, by inviting new local producers to explore opportunities with Univision’s Channel 11 and by taking advantage of the content and resources of the Univision Network, we will generate energy and contribute new ideas ”.

Now the Univision channel has become a repeater losing credibility as the most respected channel for its news and reports. This is a very clear example of how the mass media controls the content created to only influence public opinion.

The Union of Journalists, Graphic Arts and Related Branches (UPAGRA) took action after the sudden dismissal of the 109 employees of the Univision network. Néstor Soto, executive secretary of UPAGRA mentioned to local media that ,

“We are already working with the Department of Labor to provide guidance to all fellow workers, and we will be filing all the cases that need to be filed in terms of any violation, we understand it is being committed”

Néstor Soto firmly asked the people not to sponsor Univision for having eliminated all programming that was from Puerto Rico and for having closed one of the most important news centers in the country because that was where “we find out about everything that happens in the country through that channel ”.

2017

Before hurricane Maria

In June 2017, Grupo Ferré Rangel (GFR Media) laid off 40 employees, including journalists, photojournalists and managers. GFR Media also closed the newspaper Index. According to GFR Media it has about 200 active journalists but the organization seeks to sacrifice the quality of its media to save them money.

The current president of ASPPRO, Juan Hernández affirmed that, “the country is going through a crisis and that is why it is vital that the press be controlled to ensure government compliance and to denounce corruption. It is necessary to rethink the impact of these decisions in the exercise of good journalism. Every time a workshop is closed or a communication medium is closed, the ability to fulfill our responsibility to keep the country informed is affected ”.

After hurricane Maria

Puerto Rico’s largest media outlet, Grupo Ferré Rangel (or better known as GFR Media) laid off 59 employees, including journalists, graphic artists, and various employees of its newspapers El Nuevo Día and Primera Hora. These layoffs represent 25% of the company’s unionized employees.

The president of the Board of Directors of GFR Media, María Eugenia Ferré Rangel expressed in a signed message that,

“We have to make difficult and painful decisions. The contraction of the market, in particular of the media, has forced us for some time now, to have to make adjustments in our workforce, as stipulated in our collective agreement. This is as hard said as it is to do. Honestly, we have no other option. “

The unions that support these workers were not down, nor were the organizations that protect journalists in Puerto Rico. The United Steel Workers Local 6135 (USW Local 6135), the union that represents them, mentioned on their Facebook pages that,

Another organization that condemned the dismissals of GFR Media was the Association of Journalists of Puerto Rico (ASPPRO) where the president Damaris Suárez said that in GFR Media “they were carried out violating the seniority of employees, by firing union members with more years and leaving more employees. new, which charge much less ”. Suárez added that “with this action, GFR Media shows a high contempt for its employees, ignoring that they have been the engine of the success of its publications”

It so happens that these layoffs occurred a little after a month after Hurricane Maria. GFR Media took advantage of this disaster to lay off those employees they needed. What the media does not mention in Puerto Rico is that an American media spoke on the subject. The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) ran a story that read “ Puerto Rican newspapers lay off journalists in hurricane’s wake. “ The Puerto Rican newspapers fire journalists in the wake of the hurricane.

After all communication methods fell on the island of Puerto Rico, newspapers were the only way that many people on the island could find out about the news that was happening around them. In an interview with CJR, Manuel Rodríguez Banchs said, “The press (the newspaper) has been very important since the crisis.” but the company (GFR Media) invited the union representatives for a meeting where Manuel Rodrigues Banchs was present.

“We thought we were going to talk about ways to support our colleagues. But when we got to the meeting, they informed us about their cash flow problems and presented us with a list of their proposals, ”says Rodríguez. “They were going to fire 50 percent of the staff. And they said they would not consider any other alternative. “

On the other hand, in a Facebook post, it was where GFR Media mentioned that “with the decision not to make any concessions, the union leadership decided the fate of the dismissed colleagues.” In this way, GFR Media blames the union for why the layoffs happened. The next image shows the clarifications that GFR Media made on Facebook .

The following is the translation of the text.

What You Haven’t Been Told
A new collective bargaining agreement between GFR Media and United Steelworkers Local 6135 is beginning and it is our responsibility and intention to engage in it in an atmosphere of transparency and respect.
We want the facts to be clear and our negotiating positions to be guided by a desire to maintain a tempered process that achieves protection for employees and stability for the company.
We failed to clearly communicate the situation of the last few weeks and to detail the specifics of how the layoffs were conducted under the language of the collective agreement. This allowed false and defamatory information to be spread about the situation at GFR Media with the intention of affecting the company’s relationship with its employees and the country.
Due to the condition of the business following Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, the options available to management and union leadership were limited.
GFR Media sought to establish a frank dialogue with the union leadership about the condition of the business and offered options to address the difficulties at an unprecedented time.
To protect jobs, executives, management and administrative employees had their compensation reduced by 33% through December. Union leadership refused to discuss a dozen alternatives for union employees. Our initial proposal was a starting point for dialogue, not a final offer.
The union leadership was provided with business information, financial statements and their requests for information were answered. In addition, audited financial statements were made available but the union leadership never appeared to review them.
As early as the second meeting, on October 12, 2017, the union leadership stated its refusal to discuss temporary measures that might have allowed jobs to be maintained. Such a course of action left us with the only tool available under the collective bargaining agreement to deal with the reduction in business revenue: layoffs.
With the decision not to make any concessions, the union leadership decided the fate of the laid-off co-workers.
GFR Media was strictly governed by the current collective bargaining agreement, which literally and clearly states that laid-off employees are placed on a preferred seniority list to be called back if a vacancy arises in their occupational classification within one year of their layoff. If business circumstances improve, they may be reinstated to their jobs. If circumstances do not improve, at the end of their year of unemployment, employees will receive their severance pay. The company has acted in accordance with the law and the collective agreement.
Our desire to minimize the number of layoffs could not be fulfilled.
We recognize that the outcome profoundly affects our fellow workers and that it might have been avoided if the union leadership had been willing to dialogue. It is painful because these are journalists and workers who at a critical moment said they were there to serve the country.
With the beginning of the negotiation of a new collective agreement, we have the mutual responsibility to maintain a transparent and productive dialogue that makes possible different ways of working, tempering ourselves to the historical moment in which we live.
We reiterate our intention to keep the workshop open and fulfill its mission to inform Puerto Rico.

In conclusion

The mass media in Puerto Rico have a history of massively firing their employees, limiting the journalist’s role in society. Manuel Rodríguez Banchs could not have said it better, “The role of the newspaper in society is to inform and give voice. And increasingly, that role is under threat in Puerto Rico.”

Sources

The Extinction of Journalism

2014

2017

In conclusion

Written by Isaac Leon