The two largest media organizations in Baltimore have embarked on something of a hiring binge, restoring a portion of the dozens of media jobs lost in recent years. The imminent staffing reinforcements means that a media war that industry watchers are closely monitoring won’t end soon.
Both the legacy Baltimore Sun and the well-funded non-profit upstart Baltimore Banner are boosting their news-gathering abilities amid what is generally seen as challenging times for news organizations.
A job posting for the Banner says it is even expanding coverage out of its Baltimore base and into the populous Washington suburb of Montgomery County.
The Sun has endured turmoil, and staff departures, under changes in ownership in recent years. The current investment group is led by David Smith, a conservative activist and executive chairman of the Hunt Valley-based Sinclair Broadcast Group, and he and co-principal Armstrong Williams are putting their imprint on the product. Respected veterans like Dan Rodricks and Fred Rasmussen, both of whom now write for Baltimore Fishbowl, have departed.
But now the paper is looking to hire more than a dozen reporters to cover beats including education, public safety, food as well as politics editors and page designers.
“We are fortunate that we can make these kinds of investments in our business and we are excited that we have been able to add to our talented staff,” said Trif Alatzas, the editor and publisher of The Sun, in an email.
A precise count of openings is difficult to assess as some of the listings call for multiple positions and others appear to be duplicates. Alatzas didn’t respond to a follow-up question on number of hires, but there are 15 Sun job descriptions listed on mediabistro.com, a website that caters to the news media industry.
That would be a significant increase for the paper which lists 81 newsroom employees on its website. That figure includes support staff, and six journalists assigned to the sister paper in Annapolis, the Capital Gazette. The paper had more than 400 news staffers in the late 1980s before consolidation and buyouts slashed the ranks.
The Sun pay rates listed in the mediabistro ads range from $40,000 to $90,000.
The Banner, which won its first Pulitzer Prize this year, lists a newsroom of 83—which would make it the biggest in the state at the moment. And just three years into its existence, it is setting its sights higher.
On the Banner’s online job board, the news organization says “We’re expanding our coverage into Montgomery County and looking for passionate reporters who want to make a real difference through impactful local journalism….Whether you’re an experienced journalist looking for a change or an emerging, high performing reporter, we want to hear from you.”
Montgomery County is Maryland’s largest by population, and often regarded as something as a desert for local news, after the Washington Post acquired and then shut down the Gazette chain of local papers. The county also has significant wealth and large economy in the D.C. market, potentially attractive to the Banner as it seeks paying subscribers for sustainability.
The Banner is also seeking to fill other reporting and copy desk positions, as well as product and sales jobs.
At the Sun, Alatzas said some of the hiring is driven in part by a need to assume functions once performed centrally by the Tribune Company, which used to own the paper.
“We are expanding across all of our divisions in news, sales, finance, et al. as we work to peel functions away from Tribune’s systems and build out this new, local company,” Alatzas said.
Several current staffers, who asked not to be identified, said they welcomed an infusion of new talent though expressed frustration that the recruiting seemed to favor candidates with less experience than in prior years.
Some of the newcomers have also been identified as “editors” but appear to be doing the work of reporters as outlined in the company’s contract with the NewsGuild. Such a designation would keep them out of the union.
The NewsGuild, which represents journalists at The Sun, has been negotiating for a new contract for 10 months.
“I am encouraged that The Sun is looking to hire more reporters,” Hannah Gaskill, a Sun reporter and member of the Guild bargaining team. “But I have concerns that management will not hire for positions that are Guild-eligible.”
Alatzas didn’t respond to a request for comment on the union positions.
Jon Morgan is an author and journalist who worked for the Baltimore Sun, Bloomberg News and other outlets.
