The resignation of the Winston-Salem Journal's managing editor and the closing of a Mount Airy paper were the major news events in the Piedmont Triad's media scene this week.
According to The Yadkin Valley News, executives with The Surry Messenger made the announcement on Monday afternoon. The Messenger was started in 2007 after Conn.-based Heartland Publications purchased The Elkin Tribune and the Mount Airy News. The startup was staffed by people that left the other two competing publications.
I hates seeing the news of the closing. I liked seeing the employees get the financial backing, start the paper and take control of their futures. The paper also allowed Surry County to enjoy another take on the city council meeting, Friday's football game or maybe it might have just had an extra feature story that no one else did.
Down U.S. Highway 52, Ken Otterbourg, will be resigning his job as The Journal's managing editor on Jan. 29. The story said the paper's owner, Media General is thinking of centralizing the copy editing and page design functions of its three largest newspapers into one location. Considering the company's three largest papers are The Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Tampa Tribune and The Journal, that's a stretch.
Media General combined the editing and design functions for its smaller papers into one centralized center, however those papers are not that far from each other.
Other companies have also moved the editing functions of several papers to a central location. I'm sure it's made shells of some excellent community papers. It also has the same capability to make shells of some fine metro papers.

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