The Des Moines Register will be one of five regional design centers for Gannett Co. newspapers, the company announced Tuesday.
The announcement is expected to bring 35 to 60 jobs to Des Moines, said Carolyn Washburn, the Register’s editor and a vice president. Gannett hasn’t determined the timeline for the project, but it is expected to take at least two years.
The Des Moines center will design news pages for 21 newspapers, including the Iowa City Press-Citizen, and other locations in South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana.
In short, the newspaper giant Gannet will be laying off designers at local papers and moving page design to a central office.
I spent almost 4 years designing my college newspaper, and let me tell you, layout went a lot smoother nights that I spent the afternoon in the newsroom. Design and writing have to be interlinked for a good, accurate product. Gannet obviously is putting cost above quality. Which is part of why newspapers are in such bad shape.