Staff reductions at Elk Grove Citizen

March 20, 2009
Elk Grove, Calif.

Herburger Publications, Inc., owner of the Elk Grove Citizen, has announced staff reductions at the Citizen to adjust to the current economy.
The Elk Grove Citizen - like all newspapers and news organizations across the United States - is facing difficult times due to the poor economy.
In light of those challenges, the Citizen and HPI have made a variety of lay-offs in different areas of production over the past few months, including the loss of a news reporter at the Elk Grove Citizen.
The reporter - Bobby Wilson, hired in mid-December, 2008 - covered city government and politics.
Despite having to reduce staff at the Citizen, the management of HPI firmly believes in the value of reporting local city government news and coverage of the politics beat is still a high priority.
The city government and local politics beats will be jointly covered by the remaining Citizen staff writers - Cameron Macdonald and Katie Freeman, with supplemental reporting by Writer Fran Soto from sister newspaper The River Valley Times.
The Citizen will also be joining forces on a more regular basis with sister newspapers The River Valley Times, based in Wilton, as well as the Galt Herald, to bring South Sacramento regional news to readers of each publication and also share resources and reporting on common issues.
Citizen Editor Jeff Forward said false rumors circulating in online forums theorizing about the reason for staffing changes were untrue.
"The publication of a story about John Danielson's pay had absolutely no bearing in any decision to reduce staffing levels at the Elk Grove Citizen," Forward said in a press release. "The management has been assessing staffing levels for several months; and when the need to make changes became more pressing, appropriate reductions were made."
"Despite these unfortunate, but necessary changes, the Citizen reporting team will still be doggedly covering the story of executive pay at the city of Elk Grove, the Cosumnes Community Services District, and the Elk Grove Unified School District," Forward added.