New, Arizona-based owner of Inland Empire weeklies lays off editors and staff, limits freelance contributions
Times Media Group has also demanded prior approval of all freelance projects, raising questions about their commitment to community perspectives and editorial autonomy
On July 11, 2024 — just days after Arizona-based Times Media Group acquired it and several other Inland Empire weeklies from Century Group Media — the Yucaipa-Calimesa News Mirror posted to X that the paper’s acquisition “will not affect our local coverage - it’s business as usual at the News Mirror.”
That statement seems to have been premature.
On Thursday, July 18, Times Media Group abruptly fired several Century Group staffers, including the editors of three Inland Empire weeklies — David James Heiss at Redlands Community News, Hector Hernandez, Jr. at the Beaumont- and Banning-area Record Gazette, and Russell Ingold at the Fontana Herald News.
Yucaipa/Calimesa News Mirror editor, Rachael Gustuson was not laid off, nor were the paper’s two reporters. But several other Century Group staff, including the group’s graphics manager, Cheri Mitchell, were fired. Mitchell had been with Century Group for 27 years, and former publisher Jerry Bean recently described her as “wonderfully creative and reliable.”
Gustuson said she will now serve both as editor of the Yucaipa-Calimesa News Mirror and interim editor of the Redlands Community News. Someone else has been tapped as interim editor of the Fontana Herald News and Record Gazette, though Gustuson would not identify whom. A receptionist at Century Group’s Yucaipa office said the papers were “being run from Tempe,” where Times Media Group is based.
On the morning of July 18, then-Redlands Community News editor David Heiss received a call from Times Media Group’s director of operations, Nadine Johnson. According to Heiss, Johnson said, “We've been looking at our finances, and, unfortunately, your position as of this morning is being eliminated. It’s a duplication of positions.” Heiss asked if he had done anything wrong. Johnson rseponded, “no,” but that they “had to make some tough decisions.”
After receiving the news, Heiss gathered four or five Redlands Community News staffers, including the paper’s sole reporter, Israel Carreon. Heiss told the team that he, office manager Michelle Ingram, and part-time editorial assistant Sharon Folmer had all been let go. Heiss said his colleagues were shocked and irritated, but he told them, “It was [former publisher] Jerry Bean’s and [former editor] James Folmer’s dream to have a local hometown paper like the Redlands Community News, and I think we should be proud of what we helped build here. I hope I’ll see you guys around town.”
In his final article on July 18, Russell Ingold also said, “my position was terminated for financial reasons by the new owners of the [Fontana] Herald News.” Ingold — the Herald News’s sole editorial staffer — had edited the paper for 30 years and, before that, was sports editor.
With the layoffs, these Inland Empire weeklies lose not just a substantial portion of their staff (the company had 26 employees across 4 locations as of the July 3 acquisition announcement); they also lose years of institutional and community knowledge. Ingold was Century Group’s longest-serving employee. Hernandez, Jr. edited both the Record Gazette and, before it closed in 2022, the Highland Community News. And Heiss worked as a reporter at the Redlands Daily Facts and Century Group’s Record Gazette before being appointed editor of the Redlands Community News following James Folmer’s passing this January.
In addition to the layoffs, Times Media management has taken steps to limit the Century Group papers’ use of freelance contributions. Heiss said he could not confirm what, exactly, the new freelance policy was as the new management was “terrible at communicating what they wanted.” However, when one editor reached out to ask, “We can still use our freelancers, correct?” Heiss said they were told, “No. That is on hold.” A July 16 email obtained by Inland Empire MediaWatch also stipulated that all freelance projects would now need to be approved by management.
Greater reliance on salaried staff, relative to freelancers, may sound like a good thing. After all, Century Group freelancers had been paid just $35 per article and $5 per photo. However, even before the layoffs, the Century Group’s salaried editorial staffing levels were quite thin. The Group averaged just one editor and one reporter per paper, and, as Heiss explained, editors wore many hats, and staff reporters’ time was often occupied with civic matters, such as city council and school board meetings. So, freelance contributions played a significant role in the papers’ coverage of local news and events.
After being told not to use freelancers’ work, Heiss said one editor sent a panicked email saying, in effect, “I don’t know what I’m going to do” to fill the paper. According to Heiss, Times Media Group’s Nadine Johnson “didn’t understand why I and my reporter weren’t stepping up to fill more of the 20 pages that I was normally given.” That task will only get more difficult with last week’s layoffs.
One freelancer also worried that, without their and others’ contributions, the Century Group papers’ value as spaces for community voices and perspectives could be diminished. They noted that while former owner and publisher Jerry Bean did insert himself in editorial processes at the Redlands Community News, including in pursuit of “conservative balance,” decisions about which freelance stories to pursue and publish had been determined more or less by local editors. Now, management in Tempe will make those calls.
Times Media Group purchased Century Group Media on June 30, and the deal was announced in the acquired papers on July 3. The purchase price was not disclosed. Times Media Group is owned and run by CPA-turned-newspaper publisher, Steve Strickbine. The company owns more than 40 community-oriented titles in Arizona and Southern California.
The acquisition marks the end of Jerry Bean’s tenure as owner and publisher of the Century Group papers, and, with his retirement, a 66-year career in the newspaper business. In his commentary about Century Group’s sale to Times Media, Bean said of Strickbine, “He’s a friendly guy with a good sense for successful newspapers and social media. I checked him and others out carefully when I decided it was time to sell. I wanted to make sure our newspapers would be in good hands.”
Strickbine declined to comment for this story.
Heiss said that “Jerry [Bean] deserved to retire, and he’d been basically floating the papers out of his own personal finances just to keep the HR afloat.” But Heiss’s time with Times Media Group didn’t leave him optimistic about the future of the Century Group papers. “No one cared to talk to my newsroom, and I did not get the sense that they were interested in growing the news and paying attention to local news and information.”
One freelancer said they expected to see the Century Group papers turned into local “advertising machines.” They pointed to weekly cannabis coverage in some Times Media Group publications as an example of the company pandering to advertisers.
To be fair, the Century Group papers already provided an upbeat, advertiser-friendly editorial environment, heavy on stories of wholesome community events and local residents’ accomplishments. In fact, Bean launched the Redlands Community News at the recommendation of local advertisers. Still, the Century Group papers provided venues for community voices and some civic journalism — a scarce resource in a region already hit hard by cost-cutting newspaper owners.
Heiss isn’t sure there is a future for him in Southern California journalism, but he said he “felt fortunate to have a job at a time when journalism was having a lot of layoffs.” He is grateful James Folmer and Jerry Bean “saw value in him” and “pegged him to fill in [James’s] spot.”
“I like to think we were contributing to something the community was excited to have,” said Heiss. “And I’m disappointed that they don’t have it to the extent they did before.”
Correction: Former Redlands Community News editor, James Folmer, who passed away in January, was mistakenly identified as “Jerry” Folmer in a previous version of this story. This error has been corrected. My apologies. -T.C.