SJR Editor Resigns To Save Other Jobs

Illinois’ capital-city newspaper, a 188-year-old institution tied intimately to Abraham Lincoln, is without a news chief after its editor resigned in hopes of sparing more layoffs, according to The NY Post citing a staff writer.

Angie Muhs served notice of her resignation Friday from the State Journal-Register in Springfield, owned by one of the nation’s largest publishers, GateHouse Media. When the newspaper’s general manager escorted Muhs from the building Monday, the newsroom emptied as editorial employees accompanied her “as a show of respect and support,” staff writer Dean Olsen said.

Angie Muhs

According to Olsen, Muhs explained that her departure was in part “to save money on salaries in the hopes that GateHouse would not attempt more reductions in the newsroom.”

“She was always advocating for good stories, not basing stories on the number of clicks (generated by readers) on the web, but what is good public service in the community and we appreciate all that she tried to do,” said Olsen, a long-time health writer for the paper and chairman of the Springfield unit of the United Media Guild. “It’s sad she felt she had to do this because GateHouse says its focus is local news. We’re waiting for them to show us how they’re going to fulfill that mission.”

In March, the newspaper’s sports editor was laid off. The veteran, award-winning photo editor was cut this month. Olsen said the newspaper had about 35 reporters when the union formed in 2012. Today, the newspaper has 15 editorial staffers, including part-timers and three managers, he said.

Staking claim on its masthead to being “the oldest newspaper in Illinois,” the daily in this city of 115,000 about 200 miles southwest of Chicago traces its roots to 1831. The Sangamo Journal evolved into the Illinois State Journal, a Whig and later Republican Party mouthpiece that Abraham Lincoln once used to promote his political fortunes.

The newspaper has a circulation of 18,191 on weekdays and 22,028 on Sundays, according to the March 2019 Alliance for Audited Media quarterly report. That was less than half its September 2010 circulation.