Fort Wayne Newspaper Lays Off Majority Of Staff

The 100-year-old News-Sentinel laid off almost all of its remaining staff Friday afternoon.

According to news reports and social media posts by former staff members, the Fort Wayne publication will use freelancers, emptying a newsroom that once bustled with activity.

The News-Sentinel was sold by the Foellinger family to Knight-Ridder in 1980. The staff won a Pulitzer Prize in 1983 for its coverage of a local flood that nearly destroyed parts of Fort Wayne.

In early 2006, the paper was sold to McClatchy and then a few months later to its current owner, Ogden Newspapers.

Ten months ago the News-Sentinel largely ceased print production, opting to only publish online at news-sentinel.com.

The afternoon newspaper is one of two serving the Fort Wayne community. It operates in a federally-controlled joint operating agreement with the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, still locally owned by the Inskeep family and published in the morning.

The News-Sentinel has been owned by West Virginia-based Ogden Newspapers for the last few years.

As of Friday evening, the newspaper had yet to report on its own restructuring, but newly-laid off journalists took to social media to express their shock and sadness at the news.

Just FYI... The staff of https://t.co/66gfnXHtqt was let go today. I want to thank everyone that contributed to the success of my career over the past decade. This has been a fantastic professional and personal opportunity and I will miss all that I interacted with. pic.twitter.com/vvfacEOVih

— Tom Davis (@Tom101010) August 10, 2018