November 25th, 2008 
joel It’s hard to overstate the shot across the bow that the Erie media ship took last week. With the elimination of three positions at Citadel Broadcasting, and the proposed buyout of at least 25 jobs at the Erie Times News, media employment in the Erie DMA is again experiencing significant shrinkage.
The staffing issue is just a symptom of a greater illness plaguing Erie’s (and the nation’s) media outlets. Retail advertising cash is the mother’s milk of media, and retail everywhere is experiencing a major contraction due to the lack of consumer confidence and tight credit. The latter strongly comes into play in the purchase of big ticket items like automobiles, and appliances.
Of course Erie has never been a fast growing retail market, with growth in metro buying power in the low single digits. However, the size of the market, the distance from larger markets, and the economies of consolidation have ensured that there was generally enough advertising cash to go around for everyone.
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