Publisher Closing Weeklies

HARTFORD (AP) — Employees at more than five weekly newspapers owned by the Journal Register Co. were told on December 18 that their papers have been shuttered.

Joyce Mletschnig, associate editor of The Pictorial Gazette, told The Day of New London that employees at her newspaper, The Branford Review, Clinton Recorder, Main Street News, East Haven Advertiser and a handful of Elm City weeklies, were informed at a Thursday afternoon staff meeting that it was their last day on the job.

“They announced that our jobs had been terminated,” Ms Mletschnig said. “And that we all had done a good job, and it wasn’t our fault. It was the economy, bad revenues.”

A call was left seeking comment from the Journal Register Co., based in Yardley, Penn.

The debt-heavy company, which owns The New Haven Register, announced last month it planned to close up to 13 newspapers it owns in Connecticut unless a buyer could be found.

Several Connecticut lawmakers had hoped to meet on December 22 with the state’s economic development commissioner in an effort to find a way to save two daily newspapers owned by the Journal Register, The New Britain Herald and The Bristol Press. The lawmakers asked Commissioner Joan McDonald to help find a buyer.

Ms Mletschnig said employees were not surprised by the closures. She said the employees knew about the parent company’s financial troubles.