In light of the unprecedented economic catastrophe brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, the Cleveland Scene is heartbroken to tell you we temporarily laid off 5 employees today. The cuts came from virtually every department including sales, production, editorial and circulation. It’s our sincere hope that after weathering this storm, we’ll be able to bring back this incredibly valued staff, but at the moment we can’t offer a timeline.

In the spirit of transparency, since we are a free publication and website, 100% of the Scene’s revenue comes from Clevelanders being able to gather in public — in restaurants, bars, theatres, museums, parks and at our own events and festivals. Since a majority of our advertisers are ceasing operation as quarantine measures go into effect, we simply don’t have a path forward with our full staff. Remaining employees across the company are taking a pay cut and covering multiple roles for the time being.

“I don’t have the words to describe the level of despair I’m feeling about today’s agonizing decisions,” Scene Publisher Andrew Zelman said. “My hope is that in the near future, we can bring these employees back and celebrate our 50th anniversary in July. Until then, our very small but scrappy staff remains committed to Cleveland, our advertisers and to delivering journalism for the city we love”

We don’t know what the future holds, but because Cleveland needs as much
information as possible during these trying times, we’ll be working our asses off to bring you the stories you need — and some you don’t. To continue serving you, we ask that if you can support us through donation, please do. Every single contribution will go toward keeping your free, independent news source in operation another day.

It’s a hell of a time for everyone, but we’re up for the challenge and are grateful, dear reader, for your loyalty and support.

With love,

The Cleveland Scene family

This article appears in Mar 18-24, 2020.

Scene's award-winning newsroom oftentimes collaborates on articles and projects. Stories under this byline are group efforts.

7 replies on “Scene Lays Off Five Staff Members Due to Coronavirus Pandemic Fallout”

  1. Very sorry to hear this. You are left wing whacos but dang it you are our left wing whacos. We got you. I swear, hitting the donate button right now for a hundy.

    Best wishes.

  2. A true Cleveland staple, you will make it through!
    Nothing but love and light to the staff and all that is affected… Thank you providing years of culture to the city and can’t wait to see you back up and running! All of the previous comments are clearly nothing but a bunch of fucking haters that have nothing better to do and are insensitive to the fact that the employees involved have families.

  4. Bob, I gave them 5 years of my career and my loyalty is indefinite. I have a personal relationship with them all so I will do whatever I can financially and emotionally to see them bounce back! So you can suck it…be blessed!

  6. Very sad that this happened. The right wing bootlickers would rather get their news straight from Trump or Fox News while the rest of public and private media is demolished.

  7. “Join ME in pressing their advertisers to either demand a change to the tone, or stop advertising all together.” Did you really mean
    pressuring? At least you got the pronoun…ME…right for a change.

    And you’re going to get them to demand a change, and they’ll stop buying ad space if SCENE desn’t kowtow to YOUR demands? You talk the talk…are you gonna walk the walk?

    BIG advertisers shape editorial content at BIG publications. It doesn’t work that way at this level. You have no idea how this shit works. None. You’re more than a little loco in the cabeza.

    Or are you gonna go medieval on their asses and go into every bar and restaurant that advertises here, when they finally reopen (some won’t), and beat the shit out of the owner if they buy ads here?

    Pass me that pipe, bro…I could use a hit right now….

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