Belgian Newspaper ‘De Morgen’ Lays Off 15

ANTWERP—A lack of advertising revenue has forced De Morgen, one of Belgium’s major newspapers, to lay off 15 staff members, mainly reporters and editors.

De Morgen had announced in December that they would have to dismiss 26 people in all. However, after a long round of talks with union representatives, it was decided last week that only 15 journalists had to leave, and two of these left of their own accord.

Before the global economic crises, newspapers enlarged their journalistic staff considerably in order to enhance their competitive edge and bring in more advertising dollars.

But today, with income from advertisements decreasing, more redundancies are probably inevitable.

Critics say this is having a detrimental effect on what journalists are writing. When their colleagues are laid off, they don’t feel sure about their position and they hesitate to write about tricky issues.

A general tendency in Belgiium is that newspaper articles are easy to read and therefore do not incite readers to think about difficult issues. The most popular are articles about TV programs that aired the previous night, especially reality shows such as “Mijn Restaurant,” a series about five couples who are starting a restaurant.

According to blog comments on the De Morgen layoffs, most readers regret the departure of Bernard Dewulf, a journalist who published a column every two days. Others were fans of Hans Vandeweghe’s articles on sports while some said they would miss the photography of Filip Claus