The Chattanooga Times Free Press has let go over 50 staffers, including editors and reporters, after WEHCO Media sold the paper to father-and-son duo Max and Craig Fuller.
Firecrown Media, one of three companies Craig Fuller is the founder and CEO of, began overseeing operations at the Times Free Press at midnight July 30.
Fuller, along with Walter E. Hussman Jr. of WEHCO, called an all-staff meeting earlier that day during which news of the change in ownership was announced. At the meeting, Fuller said staff cuts were anticipated but newsroom and editorial staff would see the smallest reductions, according to a Times Free Press article about the sale.
After the meeting ended, editors and reporters were brought in one by one by WEHCO Media executives,
who terminated the employment of multiple staff members. Firecrown provided WEHCO with a list of people it would not keep on once it assumed ownership, and WEHCO let those people go after the all-staff meeting, according to former Times Free Press assistant editor Shelby Farmer.
Farmer was among those Firecrown asked WEHCO to let go. Editor Alison Gerber confirmed she was also let go.
Farmer had served as the assistant editor for the past four years, and before that was in another role with the Times Free Press for six years. She took some time off and left journalism in between those two roles to work for a logistics company, where she was let go by Craig Fuller's brother.
Chattanooga Times Free Press sale kept secret from employees, announced abruptly
News of the paper's change in ownership was a surprise to newsroom staff, according to Farmer, who like many others, read about it on Chattanoogan.com.
Chattanoogan.com leaked the news of the paper's sale on July 26, citing an unnamed source.
A rumor of the newspaper's sale was swirling a few months ago, according to Farmer, but Times Free Press employees were told by WEHCO Media that it was a fabrication, and the paper was not for sale
While the announcement seemed abrupt to Times Free Press staff, the process of selling the paper actually began about seven months ago. WEHCO started exploring the process of selling as early as January, according to Fuller, who said that WEHCO first considered transitioning to a nonprofit model, which received little interest from the community. Fuller said a banker reached out to him in May on behalf of WEHCO to gauge his interest in buying the paper.
Fuller said operations would continue as usual, but Farmer said she belived the future of the Chattanooga Times Free Press was uncertain.
"With the sudden lack of newsroom leadership, I don't know how they can get a paper out for the time being," Farmer said.
Raymon Troncoso, the former growth and development reporter at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, was also among the reporters let go by WEHCO on behalf of Firecrown.
Troncoso said he, too, learned about the newspaper's sale through Chattanoogan.com and that executives at WEHCO had been unresponsive in the week leading up to the announcement.
With rumors about the sale circulating and the leak on Chattanoogan.com, reporters had been tracking planes from Little Rock, Arkansas, where WEHCO is based, to Chattanooga the past week. On July 29, Troncoso said reporters were made aware of a plane that had flown in from Arkansas and then quickly left Chattanooga. After the plane left, it was assumed by newsroom staff that a deal had been made between WEHCO and a potential buyer.
Both Farmer and Troncoso said they did not know the total number of people that had been let go.
New Chattanooga Times Free Press owner explains employee terminations, what's next for newspaper
Fuller, in a phone interview, told Knox News that of the 128 people the Times Free Press had on staff the morning of July 30, Firecrown chose to keep on 74.
"It wasn't that people were let go, we just didn't extend offers to those people," Fuller said.
WEHCO provided employees it let go prior to the change in ownership with severance packages, Fuller said, although he was not aware the details of those packages. WEHCO did not respond to multiple requests for comments.
Of the employees kept on, 30 of them are in print production and running the printing press, They will be kept on for 90 days as print operations wind down, according to Fuller.
Any other staffers who wish to leave the paper have until Oct. 31 and must provide 30-day notice to receive a severance package from Firecrown, Fuller said.
As for the future of The Chattanooga Times Free Press, Fuller said he wants to digitize and modernize the paper. He planned to continue to issue one print issue weekly, as the Times Free Press currently does with its Sunday paper.
"We have a lot of things to learn," Fuller said. "Specifics could change as we learn more."
The paper was losing a lot of money on printing, according to Fuller, who said outsourcing printing would help the paper reach a profitable status.
Fuller said he also wants to hone in on regional news and focus more on reporting local issues.
"There's so much greatness, so much going on in this area," Fuller said. "We want to double-down on this region and give it a bigger local voice."
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Employees learned of Chattanooga Times Free Press sale the day they lost their jobs | Exclusive
