2nd Round of Job Cuts in 2007 at 'Sun'

By: For the second time in a year, the Kitsap Sun is cutting news staff as readers and advertisers keep moving to online news sources.

On Wednesday, the daily newspaper owned by E.W. Scripps Co. of Cincinnati reported that the editorial staff will be reduced by five positions, a 13.5 percent reduction. A 20 percent newsroom staff cut took effect in January.

Buyouts will be offered to employees 50 and older who have at least 10 years with the paper. The reductions will take effect by Jan. 25.

"We will be less than we are now," said Editor Scott Ware, who announced the cuts at a staff meeting Tuesday afternoon, "but our core mission of local news reporting remains unchanged.

"We will strive to maintain that above all else, and we will aggressively continue our evolution as a Web-centric, multimedia newsroom."

Faced with declining revenue projections, newspaper companies nationwide have cut expenses and worked to get advertisers to follow readers from print to their Web sites.

According to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulation figures, the Sun's paid circulation is 28,922 daily and 32,157 Sunday, compared with 29,302 daily and 32,866 on Sunday as of Sept. 30, 2006.

Meanwhile, traffic on the paper's Web site, kitsapsun.com, rose to 2 million page views in October and November, an increase of about 60 percent from the year before. The newspaper had a single-day record of nearly 462,000 page views on Dec. 4, a day after severe flooding in Kitsap and north Mason counties.

Every local article by the staff reporters and freelance correspondents is published first on kitsapsun.com, and the online operation draws about 10 percent of the Sun's advertising while producing a growing percentage of its profit, Publisher Mike Levi said.

"Online is our present and our future," Levi said. "Our online audience is growing, as is our online advertising. Advertisers are finding that it's working."