Longtime local journalist Scott Bass was let go in layoffs last week at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, leaving the paper without a dedicated opinion editor as its editorial staff continues to shrink.

Bass previously had editing roles at Style Weekly, the Chesterfield Observer and Richmond Magazine. He joined the Times-Dispatch in 2022 in an opinion role that gave him responsibility over the paper’s own editorials, as well as submitted op-ed columns and letters to the editor.

Lee Enterprises, the corporate owner of the Times-Dispatch, had already cut back on opinion staff at many of the newspapers it owns in Virginia. Bass’s departure means Lee’s flagship Virginia paper in the state’s capital city no longer has an opinion editor.

It’s unclear what that means for the future of the Times-Dispatch opinion page. Executive Editor Encarnacion Pyle and other newspaper leaders didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment for this story.

Bass was still listed as the paper’s opinion editor in Monday’s print edition. In the Tuesday edition, his name had disappeared from the list of editors in the paper’s masthead, with no announcement to subscribers. In Tuesday’s paper, there was no opinion editor listed.

An email sent to Bass’s account Tuesday returned an auto-reply message saying “Scott Bass is no longer with Lee Enterprises.”

Local newspapers across the country have been in steep decline for years, shedding journalists as they struggle to transition to a digital future the way bigger national publications have.

The Richmonder previously reported that the Times-Dispatch was planning significant cuts to news coverage of the Richmond metropolitan area effective last Friday.

The decision to let Bass go came as more of a surprise. As an editor, he is not a member of the newsroom’s unionized bargaining unit, which receives advance notice of impending layoffs.

Also gone from the paper’s staff directory after last week’s layoffs are former Henrico and Hanover counties reporter Sean Jones, former Chesterfield County reporter Thad Green and former breaking news reporter Gwyndolyn Miles.

The sports section was also impacted by the layoffs, losing former reporter Jackson Didlake.

Payton Kifus, previously a reporter with the Lee-owned Mechanicsville-Ashland Local, is also no longer with the company, according to an auto-reply message on her work email address.

After Bass’s departure and the retirement earlier this year of longtime political columnist Jeff Schapiro, Pulitzer-winning columnist Michael Paul Williams appears to be the only full-time opinion journalist remaining at the Times-Dispatch.

Contact Reporter Graham Moomaw at gmoomaw@richmonder.org