Multiple staffers tell Poynter that Plain Dealer Managing Editor Thomas Fladung told staffers in a meeting Friday morning the newspaper’s newsroom will leave its downtown Cleveland building.
There’s no time frame for the move — it could be eight weeks, it could be eight months, Fladung said, according to staffers. Fladung reportedly said the staffers in the building’s first and fourth floors, which contain its newsroom and copy and production hubs, could move to the Plain Dealer’s suburban production facility on Tiedeman Road in Brooklyn, Ohio, or possibly a downtown office.
The Northeast Ohio Media Group would move into the old space. That staff includes editorial staffers for Cleveland.com and the Sun News papers. Unlike the Plain Dealer’s staff, which is mostly unionized, those employees aren’t. Asked by Poynter why the staff couldn’t be placed in the same office, one person who was at the meeting reportedly expressed bafflement: ““Lord knows there’s plenty of space.”
The Advance-owned paper announced in April it would end daily delivery of the paper and would lay off staff. Those layoffs took place at the end of July.
In August, the Plain Dealer explained that the Northeast Ohio Media Group would “operate cleveland.com and the Sun News, create content, and represent The Plain Dealer, Sun News and cleveland.com for all multimedia ad sales and marketing. The Plain Dealer Publishing Co., a separate company, will continue to create content, publish in print seven days a week and also provide support services for both organizations.”
