R-G fires popular reporter, well-wishing (aka protest) planned today

The Register-Guard has fired popular entertainment reporter Serena Markstrom Nugent, and according to an email sent out by her former colleague, Bob Keefer, her friends and colleagues will be convening to wish her well today at 3:30 pm on the sidewalk in front of the R-G at 3500 Chad Drive. Markstrom Nugent will be going to the R-G to collect her personal items from her desk.

EW is going to go out on a limb here and say this well-wishing is going to be more of a protest and will be heading out there to cover it.

The R-G has lost many of its experienced long-time reporters over the past several years. Readers may have noted that Markstrom Nugent hasn’t been writing about entertainment lately, as she did for most of her 13-year stint at the R-G.  She was moved off entertainment and began covering a rural Lane County beat. That move surprised many of  Markstrom’s readers — she has built a following for music and entertainment through not only her stories, but via frequent social media posts on Facebook and Twitter as well as her blog. Moving writers to beats they are unfamiliar with is often seen as a strategy to get rid of experienced, higher-paid writers and replace them with newer reporters at a lesser pay scale.

According to social media posts, Markstrom Nugent, who is pregnant, was fired for checking her email while on medical leave.