The Midcoast Villager, recently lavished with blind fawning praise by CBS News for its alleged innovations, has abolished the jobs of six staffers, including a top editor.
Christine Simmonds loses her managing editor position in the purge.
Publisher Aaron Britt told the Bangor Daily News the job cuts were “purely a financial and business decision.”
Britt called the layoffs and buyouts “a path to sustainability.”
Even a recent puff piece on the Villager by CBS Sunday Morning thumbsucking correspondent Martha Teichner wasn’t enough to solve the paper’s financial crisis.
Since the CBS piece aired last fall, three Villager staffers have accepted “buyouts” and three were laid off.
In addition to Simmonds, two copy editors left or were laid off, along with three staffers from the sales and advertising department.
The Villager, based in Camden and long commonly known separately as The Courier-Gazette, Camden Herald and Republican Journal, covers Knox and Waldo counties.
It was a dirty fire starter for my wood stove .
Crumpling it up always made my hands dirty .