The Cincinnati Enquirer is homeless.
The city's last remaining (almost) daily newspaper has been without a newsroom or offices since moving out of the 312 Elm Street office tower Downtown in December, when its 30-year lease expired.
Reporters and editors had expected to move one block west to 312 Plum Street, but a lease apparently has not been finalized with the landlord and Gannett, the nation's largest newspaper chain.
Without a newsroom, a staff meeting for some journalists was held last week in a meeting room at the Walnut Hills branch of the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library.
Beryl Love, Enquirer executive editor and market leader, says he has "no updates at this time" when I asked when his staff would be moving into 312 Plum. When I wrote about the move Dec. 8, Love told me that it was "a bit premature for me to go on the record with details. Once all the paperwork is in order we’ll have a story and I’ll answer any questions you have."
Enquirer staffers had been preparing for months for the move from the 312 Elm Street office tower near the Bengals' Paycor Stadium. The Enquirer leased five floors in 1992 to become the signature tenant when the paper moved from 617 Vine St. Staffers say that offices for Cincinnati.com and the Enquirer will move to one floor in the smaller 312 Plum St. building.
It's been a tough year for the Enquirer. It was one of 136 Gannett papers to eliminate home-delivered Saturday newspapers in March, a growing trend in the newspaper industry. But subscribers could find a full digital replica of the newspaper that day at Cincinnati.com, and have access to all of Gannett's digital papers and websites.
In May, Gannett shut down the 98-year-old Western Hills Press when it closed the five Community Press group weeklies (including the Delhi Press, Northwest Press, Eastern Hills Journal, Loveland Herald, Milford-Miami Advertiser and Community Journals) and three Northern Kentucky weeklies (Boone County Recorder, Campbell County Recorder and Kenton County Recorder).
In October, after Gannett lost $54 million on revenues of $749 million in the second quarter, the company eliminated about 1,000 positions; temporarily suspended matching contributions to employee 401(k) accounts; implemented an indefinite hiring freeze; ordered all employees to take one week of unpaid leave in December; and offered voluntary severance to staffers who wanted to retire or leave the company.
As Enquirer employees were preparing for the mandated furloughs in December, one reporter was let go in another budget cut and staffers learned that most of the people taking the voluntary severance deal or retiring would not be replaced.
