YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Last August, one week after the Youngstown Vindicator celebrated its 150th anniversary, ownership announced it would cease operation due to years of financial struggles. More than one hundred employees lost their job, including Managing Editor Mark Sweetwood.
The publication’s name and online presence was taken over by the Trumbull County competitor, the Tribune Chronicle.
“We really bled for that place and to suddenly go from 40 of us in a newsroom, … 140 in our organization were working on this every day to literally a handful of people working for a new Vindicator was difficult,” said Sweetwood.
The Vindy’s former managing editor spent more than a decade at the newspaper and four decades overall in local news. Although he saw the writing on the wall, he thought his media career was over.
“Newspapers and me have kind of been a lifelong thing. My fist job was delivering when I was 13. You find yourself, if you’re going to do any job for a period of decades, that you’ve got to reinvent yourself to become something else. At 59 years old, other media weren’t banging down my door,” said Sweetwood.
But Sweetwood didn’t want to give up on his dream or call it a career.
He took a year off from his adjunct professor position at Youngstown State University and went to work. After months of research analytics, joined by some former Vindicator reporters, they started a digital offering called Mahoning Matters.
The team of five focuses on in-depth reporting, a watchdog of sorts, filling some of the void in the Mahoning Valley left behind by the demise of the Vindicator.
“Try to tell the stories that might otherwise not go told. And I think that’s kind of central to our mission. For what we need to do, we have the best team of people available, so it’s great. It’s energizing,” said Sweetwood.
The Pew Research Center reports from 2008 to 2019, U.S. newspapers reduced the number of employees by half. And the global pandemic is accelerating the downfall and leading many operations to go digital. Sweetwood said giving away content for free online has hurt the newspaper industry.
McClatchy Company is the owner and operator of Mahoning Matters, which started with funding from Google. Sweetwood said he’s grateful for this opportunity and looks forward to the future.
“Our audience growth happened during the pandemic. In order to meet the changing demands of your audience, even in a startup, you have to reinvent yourself. So, we became a little more daily versus long term. But when the pandemic ends, we’ll reinvent ourselves again. So, am I happy and proud? I just feel lucky most days,” said Sweetwood.
