GateHouse Media to launch Design Houses in June

GateHouse Media will begin the next phase of hammering a stake through the remnants of community journalism in June when it launches two design houses.

The houses, which will be located in Rockford, Ill., and Framingham, Mass., will handle design and copy editing functions for all of GateHouse Media's more than 300 daily and weekly newspapers in the United States.

The design function for The Carthage Press, Neosho Daily News, and Pittsburg Morning Sun, as well as GateHouse Media's other smaller newspapers, will be handled at the Massachusetts facility.

Though GateHouse is hiring workers for the Rockford and Framingham sites, that number will be nowhere near the number who will lose their jobs at the company's newspapers.

The following passage is taken from the company's newly-launched Design Center page:

Work with local editors from towns across the country to design attractive and compelling news pages at our busy central desks. You’ll also write engaging headlines, ensure copy is error-free and continually improve our local news and pages.

 Some news industry reporters have likened GateHouse's move to what Gannett did, since the nation's largest newspaper company has also gone to centralized layout and copy editing centers. The major difference is that GateHouse operates newspapers in small communities and it is impossible to capture the essence of a small community from half a continent away.

Of course, this is the kind of decision that GateHouse officials use to justify their lavish bonuses.