After Job Cuts in 2007 -- What's Ahead?
Posted: 1/15/2008 | By: Jennifer Saba
Small or large, local or national, coastal or fly-over, the statements issued from newspapers across the country in 2007 in announcing layoffs or buyouts had much the same tone:
"These are very challenging economic conditions." --Jerome Ferson, publisher, The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla.
"In this complex and competitive information and media environment, with consumer choices multiplying daily, our new strategic plan calls for more resources to be dedicated to new technology and product development." -- Jack Sweeney, publisher, Houston Chronicle.
"Our business continues to change to meet the needs of our readers and our advertisers. This transformation has been a difficult one in recent years." -- Elizabeth Brenner, publisher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
As advertising and circulation revenue plunged, publishers, for better or worse, trimmed fixed costs -- labor and newsprint -- to prop up margins. Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that for the first 10 months of 2007, the number of employees in the news- paper industry declined 2.8% to roughly 350,000. That's a loss of about 10,000 employees, compared with the same period in 2006.
In May, the San Francisco Chronicle told the local guild it intended to cut 80 union and 20 management positions in its editorial department, or about 25% of its staff. That same month, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis extended buyout offers to 145 people.
The News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., slashed 41 staffers in June. President/Publisher Robin Saul stated that in months to come, "the effectiveness of the newspaper's daily operations will not be jeopardized."
In July, the San Jose Mercury News laid off 31 members of its newsroom staff.
While newsroom losses usually get the most ink during times of cuts, their business and pressroom colleagues suffered, too. The Fresno Bee in July cut seven of its 31 positions in advertising production and sent those jobs to India with the outfit Express KCS, a San Jose company with offices in New Delhi. In December, its sister publications, The Sacramento Bee and The Modesto Bee, announced similar moves, eliminating 13 ad department positions and five production artist positions, respectively.
Sixty-six employees lined up in August for severance packages at The Tennessean in Nashville, but only 24 were granted.
In an October memo to employees, San Antonio Express-News publisher Tom Stephenson tried to sugarcoat the bitter news: the paper's goal was to reduce some 40 and 50 positions through a combination of "incentives" and instituting a hiring freeze.
Many papers put voluntary buyouts on the table -- and some found a buyer's market. In October, The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill., offered packages to nearly 150 eligible employees. Twenty-three people applied, but executives would only accept 16 company-wide. In addition, about five managers in high- level positions took Copley Press up on its buyout offer when the paper was sold to GateHouse Media.
Also in October, The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass., cut 21 full-time workers, including nine pressmen, in addition to part-time workers who stuffed inserts.
The Herald-Argus, a six-day afternoon paper in LaPorte, Ind., lost half its staff in November after Paxton Media Group acquired the paper. About 30 to 40 prepress, pressroom, and post-press workers lost their jobs. According to the Post-Tribune in Lake County, Ind., four sales assistants, a photographer and a wire editor were also let go there. Julie Kessler, a Herald-Argus wire editor who was on sick leave, was notified of her termination by certified mail, the Post-Tribune reported.
"These are very challenging economic conditions." --Jerome Ferson, publisher, The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla.
"In this complex and competitive information and media environment, with consumer choices multiplying daily, our new strategic plan calls for more resources to be dedicated to new technology and product development." -- Jack Sweeney, publisher, Houston Chronicle.
"Our business continues to change to meet the needs of our readers and our advertisers. This transformation has been a difficult one in recent years." -- Elizabeth Brenner, publisher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
As advertising and circulation revenue plunged, publishers, for better or worse, trimmed fixed costs -- labor and newsprint -- to prop up margins. Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that for the first 10 months of 2007, the number of employees in the news- paper industry declined 2.8% to roughly 350,000. That's a loss of about 10,000 employees, compared with the same period in 2006.
In May, the San Francisco Chronicle told the local guild it intended to cut 80 union and 20 management positions in its editorial department, or about 25% of its staff. That same month, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis extended buyout offers to 145 people.
The News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., slashed 41 staffers in June. President/Publisher Robin Saul stated that in months to come, "the effectiveness of the newspaper's daily operations will not be jeopardized."
In July, the San Jose Mercury News laid off 31 members of its newsroom staff.
While newsroom losses usually get the most ink during times of cuts, their business and pressroom colleagues suffered, too. The Fresno Bee in July cut seven of its 31 positions in advertising production and sent those jobs to India with the outfit Express KCS, a San Jose company with offices in New Delhi. In December, its sister publications, The Sacramento Bee and The Modesto Bee, announced similar moves, eliminating 13 ad department positions and five production artist positions, respectively.
Sixty-six employees lined up in August for severance packages at The Tennessean in Nashville, but only 24 were granted.
In an October memo to employees, San Antonio Express-News publisher Tom Stephenson tried to sugarcoat the bitter news: the paper's goal was to reduce some 40 and 50 positions through a combination of "incentives" and instituting a hiring freeze.
Many papers put voluntary buyouts on the table -- and some found a buyer's market. In October, The State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill., offered packages to nearly 150 eligible employees. Twenty-three people applied, but executives would only accept 16 company-wide. In addition, about five managers in high- level positions took Copley Press up on its buyout offer when the paper was sold to GateHouse Media.
Also in October, The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass., cut 21 full-time workers, including nine pressmen, in addition to part-time workers who stuffed inserts.
The Herald-Argus, a six-day afternoon paper in LaPorte, Ind., lost half its staff in November after Paxton Media Group acquired the paper. About 30 to 40 prepress, pressroom, and post-press workers lost their jobs. According to the Post-Tribune in Lake County, Ind., four sales assistants, a photographer and a wire editor were also let go there. Julie Kessler, a Herald-Argus wire editor who was on sick leave, was notified of her termination by certified mail, the Post-Tribune reported.