Stop the presses?

Austin will suffer under Statesman's major staffing shake-up, experts say

Readers will suffer if Statesman's reporters take proposed buyouts.

Photo by Jon S

Just four months after the Austin American-Statesman was sold, the new owner is extending buyout offers to every one of the daily newspaper’s 200-plus employees. While observers predict this will lead to dramatic staffing cuts and diminished news coverage, they doubt it will result in a shutdown of the Statesman.

Rich Oppel, interim editor in chief of Texas Monthly and editor of the Statesman from 1995 to 2008, thinks it’s more likely the Statesman’s print edition will vanish in five to seven years.

“The future is digital,” Oppel tells CultureMap. “I would not be surprised to see continued hiring — even with buyouts — to bring in newspeople who are ‘digital natives’ and will help migrate the Statesman to strong non-print platforms.”

Former journalist Wanda Garner Cash, retired associate director of the University of Texas School of Journalism, says she’s “dismayed and saddened” by the Statesman news, which surfaced August 10.

“Every person in Central Texas, the state of Texas, and the nation should be also dismayed and discouraged by the Statesman offering buyouts to its entire workforce,” Cash tells CultureMap. “This move signals the new owner’s lack of appreciation for the dedicated staff, and it says the new owner regards the staff as disposable.”

“If even one reporter or photographer accepts the buyout,” she adds, “the community will suffer from a loss of coverage and institutional knowledge.”

Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the nonprofit Poynter Institute, says Austin isn’t in danger of losing its only daily newspaper — at least anytime soon — since Pittsford, New York-based GateHouse Media, LLC purchased the Statesman in April for $47.5 million from its longtime owner, Atlanta-based Cox Media Group Inc.

But the offering of severance packages to Statesman employees probably will reduce the staff “substantially,” meaning fewer resources for reporting local news and, therefore, thinner print editions, Edmonds says.

“Offering everyone buyouts is a pretty standard way of doing a staff reduction,” Edmonds tells CultureMap. “That way, people who are nearly ready to leave and want the severance can do it. Fewer people who really want to stay need to be laid off.”

On August 10, the Statesman reported newspaper-wide eligibility for voluntary severance packages. Any employee who accepts a severance deal will leave the company in September.

“This also allows us to better align our resources around the areas of most importance to our readers and advertisers,” Statesman publisher Susie Biehle told her newspaper.

Statesman executives will consider whether to accept staffers’ buyout requests based on the paper’s business needs and news coverage needs, Biehle says.

“We are aggressively pursuing a path to greater revenue diversification and eventual overall growth to better support our entire operation,” Biehle says. “In the challenging media landscape that affects all Texas newspapers, this path doesn’t stray from our commitment to do journalism with impact.”

That being said, the Statesman is ceasing publication of Ahora Sí, an award-winning weekly Spanish-language newspaper, on October 11.

The potential buyouts at the Statesman underscore a sad reality about the modern-day newspaper business: Shrinking readership and revenue are triggering an overall decline in reporting of local news.

“What I hope we do not see is a further diminishment of local reporting here in Austin and across the state,” Oppel says. “In a case where you have a buyout, what is most at risk is the depth and experience of reporting. Most buyouts are taken by veteran newspeople who are near retirement.”

“I’m sure the Statesman editor, Debbie Hiott, is working hard to balance the expectations of ownership for reduced or reallocated expenses with the need for experience on the major beats,” Oppel adds.

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Red Light

San Antonio leads Texas on ending horse-drawn carriage rides by 2030

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Horses will no longer pull carriages on the streets of downtown San Antonio.

San Antonio has pulled off something that the rest of Texas has yet to do, but it didn't come without some contentious conversations. City Council has unanimously voted (with one abstention) to phase out the use of horse-drawn carriages over the next five years. That means by January 1, 2030, there will be none on the streets at all; instead, there will be electric carriages.

These plans have been in the making since 2022 — if not always at the same level of intensity — when District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and District 3 Councilmember Phyllis Viagran wrote up some concerns about the horses' wellbeing. A special session at the end of October 2024 hinted to San Antonians that the end for this practice was neigh — sorry, nigh — and the final vote was made on December 12. In addition to accepting the plan, it extended its timeframe by two years.

The initial proposal included worries about the horses' exposure to traffic and pollution, as well how their presence might exacerbate those issues for the environment at large by slowing traffic. It also raised concerns about the effects of standing or walking on hard surfaces for too long, or spending time in extreme weather.

At the December 12 meeting, San Antonians gave impassioned speeches about animal welfare — both to call attention to the need for better conditions and to defend the reputations and jobs of current horse drivers — but it wasn't the first time the council heard from the public about the issue.

In a prior city survey, 50,476 respondents weighed in. Of those respondents, 51.98 percent said they liked the idea to "Transition horse-drawn carriages to electric carriages and pedicabs and ban horse drawn carriages completely." There were alternative solutions listed, but respondents were less drawn to them.

A cultural divide emerged in the data and continued in the December meeting: some people avoided the carriages because they worried about the treatment of the horses, while others enjoyed them because of their historical echoes and living legacy. Many speakers in favor of the plan used this to form their argument, raising questions about history versus progress.

More tangible objections to the plan hinged on the businesses — specifically five companies — and jobs that would be lost, which was the main factor behind extending the adjustment period.

Discussions about the particulars of the electric vehicles are still to come, as confirmed in the discussion near the end of the meeting. Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez addressed concerns about what would happen to the horses, mentioning the Brady Hunter Foundation as a future partner in finding them rescue homes.

Some council members also brought up rhetorical questions about animal exploitation by groups like Sea World, the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, military and police forces, and even various groups in the Fiesta parade, although these did not come with a formal motion to pick the issues up.

This decision could have a ripple effect on other Texas cities. Dallas has recently considered a similar ban, but it appears to have stalled; Austin's attempts at a ban have been unsuccessful, but according to the Austin-American Statesman, only one operator is permitted to bring horses downtown. She declines to do so because the long hours are unfair to her and the horses. Houston does have horse-drawn carriages, and there seems to be little conversation about banning them.

Cities like Chicago and Salt Lake City have led the charge in the United States with some of the most prominent successful bans. Other cities around the world with bans include Brussels and Guadalajara, which both switched to electric models. Bans that have been around for years, like Guadalajara's and Prague's, still aren't out of the woods — people are still pushing back on the decision, so it sounds like San Antonio still has much work cut out for it.

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