Television station WCAX laid off six people Friday, including three photographers.
On-air talent was spared and the station has no plans for further job cuts, said Jay Barton, vice president and general manager.
The reductions are part of an effort to make the operation more efficient by training reporters to do some of their own camera work, either on station equipment or cellphones.
“It’s a very different world than it was 10 years ago,” Barton said. “This is about adaptation.”
Veteran cameraman Bob Davis was among those who lost his job. The senior photographer found out at 11 a.m. Friday that his 36 years at the South Burlington station were coming to end.
“It’s a little tough,” Davis told Seven Days. “The reality is that the broadcast business is changing.”
A shift toward multimedia journalists led to Davis and other WCAX photographers teaching reporters to do camera work. The irony was not lost on him. “We’ve been training our replacements,” Davis said.
The Martin family founded WCAX in 1954, and sold the operation to Atlanta-based Gray Television for $29 million last year. “There were changes obviously to be had once the Martins sold the business,” Davis said.
The staff behind the cameras often lasted longest at the station, and they helped new reporters find their way around the community, said Davis.
He fears the new model won’t “support storytelling in a tradition that the Vermont viewer has come to appreciate and expect from its local media.”
Davis met presidents, governors and dairy farmers over the three decades he shot big and not-so-big stories. It’s the latter type that will stay with him.
“It’s really just the small, everyday stories that keep you going, and the people of this state that keep you going,” Davis said. “There’s a lot of people doing amazing things out there and working hard at it.”
Barton declined to comment on the severance packages that employees received. In addition to the photographers, a business employee was let go, as well as a satellite truck staffer, he said. That leaves the station with about 90 employees.
The departure of several reporters and anchors over the last eight months was not related to the new ownership, Barton said. Recent departures include Keith McGilvery, Kristin Kelly, Jennifer Costa and Eva McKend.
New opportunities and family concerns drove their decisions to leave, according to Barton, who said he talked to all of the reporters about why they moved on.
“I’ve tried to have eye-to-eye, tell-me-the-plain-truth conversations with everyone,” Barton said.
Friday’s layoffs are something “that we do not plan to repeat,” he emphasized. “This is a transitional moment, if you will.”
Disclosure: WCAX and Seven Days are media partners.
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Hey Man, Isn’t Television Without Pictures Actually Just Radio ?
Since the change in ownership, it is clear that wcax is not in tune with vermont values and caring for their employees like they once did as a family owned business. This is sad to see and will certainly have a negative effect on the quality of their overall product.
I feel bad for those who remain. The company I worked for was ‘acquired’ and then ‘re-acquired’ and at each turn there were fewer people. That, in turn, equated to poorer and poorer service to our customers.
We have noticed a drop in production quality since WCAX was sold. The channel was The Standard in the area.
It now appears to be a race to the bottom.
Bob, you are a consummate professional and will be missed by those who saw you working behind the camera. I wish you all good things. Hang in there. It gets better.
Very sorry to hear about this! It’s going to be hard to be “first” with late-breaking news if you have to worry about cameras as well! I remember when Catherine Hughes single-handedly represented WCAX’s Rutland Bureau (I used to be a reporter for the Rutland Herald in a previous life) and being awed not only by her journalistic abilities but also by the fact that she set up her own camera and filmed all her own footage.
Margo Howland
I’m very sad to hear it. I remember Bob from years ago when I was lucky enough to bartend in downtown Burlington at a place where the WCAX employees went every payday. After retuning from years away working in marketing, then coming back to Vermont as a teacher, I recognized Bob’s name in the credits and was glad to know that a few of my friends from the old days had made a career at the station. As an professional photographer and videographer, I can understand the value of their work.
WCAX has changed big time in the past few yrs and it’s not for the good. There were some very wonderful trustworthy reporters, some have passed on and we miss them a lot, some have moved on to better jobs and states. There’s a couple who is leaving/gone I’m glad of.. The news used to be more focus on Vermont and it’s citizens that’s not the case anymore. There was more respect from the station about the US President’s, since 2016 thats not the case anymore.. These photographers are the backbone of the news, they make sure of the good shots, the sounds. If you are reporting, you have to keep your mind on the news, talking. makes it hard to interview and move the camera all at the same time. Sounds like new owners are not interested in the quality of news anymore..