By: Hailey Bosek

The largest newspaper chain in the U.S with over 200 publications under the company’s name, Gannett, recently posted journalism’s hottest new job position. The esteemed role is titled “Taylor Swift Reporter” and “Beyonce Reporter.”

“Seeing both the facts and the fury, the Taylor Swift reporter will identify why the pop star’s influence only expands, what her fanbase stands for in pop culture, and the effect she has across the music and business worlds,” the company wrote in its job description. Similarly, the newspaper is looking for someone to do the same for Beyonce.

That isn’t the only thing that Gannett has been up to as of late. Gannett has faced scrutiny due to its mass layoffs in recent years. According to NPR, Gannett’s staff of 25,000 has dwindled down to just over 11,000 since 2019. Mass layoffs came in waves, with the most recent one laying off 6% of its U.S. media division in December 2022.

Gannett Media president Maribel Perez Wadsworth told staff in an email that the company would make “necessary but painful reductions to staffing” and eliminate certain open positions. These supposedly “necessary” layoffs are taking people with decades of experience in their career away from their expertise while creating pockets of news deserts around the country. Susan DeCarava, president of the NewsGuild, has been vocal about Gannett’s control over the industry.

“Gannett CEO Mike Reed didn’t have a word to say to the scores of journalists whose livelihoods he’s destroyed, nor to the communities who have lost their primary news source thanks to his mismanagement,” DeCarava said in a statement.

So why Taylor Swift? Why Beyonce? Kristin Roberts, Gannett’s chief content officer told the Wall Street Journal that the revenue is what will save local journalism.

It is not. To advertise this position is laughing at the faces of the local journalists’ jobs that were slashed in the name of profits. These papers are left to a handful of staff that are stretched thin or are shut down entirely. The future of journalism looks bleak when the local city hall meetings will go uncovered, but what restaurant Taylor Swift recently visited has its own 500-word breaking story for USA Today. Gannett laid off about 600 reporters last year and has done nothing to salvage local papers. While their relevance is fading, their mission is more important than ever. The local news is falling through the cracks because it doesn’t make as much money or gain as many readers as documenting what new glittered corset Beyonce wore at the third leg of her tour. Does this make the local town hall sessions any less important?

I love Taylor Swift. I remember where I was when I saw the job listing on Twitter and immediately thought about how I could cover this beat. Analyzing cultural phenomenon’s and covering them is important. I believe that pop culture news can be fun to cover, create and read. However, to dedicate an entire reporter for both Beyonce and Swift as if the company doesn’t regularly lay off journalists with decades of experience is a slap in the face of why journalism matters in the first place. We need to continue as a community to invest in the local publications. We need to go back to our roots and connect with the people we cover. And most importantly, we need to call out Media Conglomerates at any opportunity we can.

-30-