Like millions of Americans, most employees of the Hartford Courant have been working by remote during the pandemic. Until now, writers, editors and photographers believed they had a newsroom to return to, eventually.
To their surprise, they were wrong.
In a Friday afternoon e-mail, Chicago-based Tribune Publishing and Courant Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Andrew Julien informed staff that the Courant's headquarters since 1950, at 285 Broad St., will close, permanently, two days after Christmas. The company says no alternative workspace has been lined up.
"With no clear path forward in terms of returning to work (for employees working remotely)," reads a statement from Tribune, "and as the company evaluates its real estate needs in light of health and economic conditions brought about by the pandemic, we have made the difficult decision to permanently close the Hartford Courant office at 285 Broad Street in Hartford as of Dec. 27, 2020."
After attending a remote staff meeting about the change, Courant writer Emily Brindley, a mobilizer for the Courant Guild, told WTIC the newsroom is central to everything that happens at the paper.
"Our newsroom is really everything to us," said Brindley, "I honestly don't know what we're going to do... now that we're going to lose it."
The union has been highly critical of company's financial management of the Courant, which has featured dozens of worker buyouts and furloughs in 2020. In recent years, much of the newspaper's central production, and that of several other Tribune publications, has shifted to corporate headquarters in Chicago.
To stabilize the Courant's future, the Courant Guild has been lobbying for Tribune to sell the nation's oldest continuously published newspaper (established in 1764) to a local owner, if one can be found.
In a statement released on Twitter, the Courant Guild writes, "This is what happens when hedge funds own newspapers."
Brindley says employees have been told they'll be allowed back in the building to collect their belongings.
"I don't think that Tribune Publishing understands what a newsroom means to a newspaper at all," she says, "We have been surviving up until this point working remotely because we had to. That does not make it a long-term, sustainable solution."
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin issued this statement about the paper that's been holding him, and, over the centuries, thousands of Connecticut officials accountable for their actions:
"At a time when so many cities have seen their papers of record close down altogether, we're fortunate that the Hartford Courant continues in operation, with committed reporters on the beat covering our city and our state every day. But it's a sad day and a tough blow to see the Tribune Publishing Company close the newsroom and physical headquarters of the oldest continuously published newspaper in America. Robust and trusted local journalism is critical for the health of local democracy, government, and community, and as more and more papers get acquired by hedge funds focused on the bottom line, we should all worry deeply about the relentless pressures and constant chipping away at the resources dedicated to local news."
The Courant's departure from its prime location near the State Capitol will also mean more customers lost to small businesses downtown, which are already struggling to draw traffic due to the pandemic.