UPDATED THROUGHOUT AT 5:52 P.M.

The Burlington Free Press laid off 13 employees Thursday, including at least five newsroom staffers. 

Among them is longtime staff writer Matt Sutkoski, a general assignment reporter who wrote the popular Weather Rapport blog. Sutkoski joined the paper full-time in 1992.

“It’s the way the business is. It kind of feels like it was inevitable,” Sutkoski said. “Things happen. I’ll just redirect myself and I’ll be fine.”

The layoffs also included reporter Elizabeth Murray, editor Emilie Stigliani, copy editor Jordan Kilty and photographer Maddie McGarvey, according to several sources familiar with the situation.

Got something to say?

Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!

Paul Heintz was part of the Seven Days news team from 2012 to 2020. He served as political editor and wrote the "Fair Game" political column before becoming a staff writer.

6 replies on “Media Note: Layoffs at the Burlington Free Press [UPDATED]”

  2. I think what the last paragraph meant to say was:
    “We still haven’t figured out how to monetize online content or adapt the ridiculous business model for print media that counts on double digit profits and we regret that we just spent a shitload of money to build new printing press in order to switch to an unpopular format that mimics 7Days in look, but not content or sustainability”

  4. It’s too bad their are layoffs… The BFP’s content has gone way down hill and it’s demise was inevitiable. You put out a crappy product and no one is going to buy it.
    Then they decide to censor online content and make it a pay access…. that was clearly a bad move. The site got a lot of hits due to the commentors not the articles… that is ad $$$. Now they get a lot less hits, the ad $$$ isnt’ worth as much, the paper version isn’t worth buying… the best part is the cross word.
    They will be totally and completely gone within 5 years and there will be a sweet chunk of real estate available down town. Good riddance

  5. So sad. I’ve had a beef with the Freeps (to which I still subscribe to this day) ever since they decided to invest $2.4M in that new press & redesign rather than in human resources. This layoff feels like a sad affirmation of my opinion.
    Last year Mr. Heintz talked with me (among many others) about this for his rock-solid piece, “Not-So-Free Press”:
    http://www.7dvt.com/2012burlin…

  6. Not surprised…I think the BFP has gone down hill significantly, in its reporting of stories, lack of grammar and sentence structure, and an increase of typos (some of them even in the headlines!) I use to buy the Sunday paper every week but have limited this purchase due to the cost, flimsy articles and LOTS OF ADVERTISEMENT INSERTS. It’s as if the pride has gone out of putting out a quality paper. Too bad! They should take a cue from Seven Days which I think is an excellent paper, sharp reporting and interesting articles.

Comments are closed.