'Journal Sentinel' Slashes Workforce By 35 to 50

By: E&P Staff and The Associated Press The state's largest newspaper is cutting its workforce.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel announced today its offering to buyout 35 to 50 employees with ten years of service or more.

That's 3.5 to five percent of the paper's full-time workforce.

The company is offering cash severance and a healthcare benefit to those employees who volunteer to leave.

The Journal Sentinel says it will make involuntary cuts if the voluntary separations are insufficient.

President Betsy Brenner say the paper must align the size of its business with the changing newspaper industry.

Brenner says voluntary separation program and attrition will reduce the workforce by 100 full-time positions by the end of the year.

Brenner's memo to staff has been posted at the Romenesko site at www.poynter.org. It follows.
*

Dear Colleagues:

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.

The revenue platform which supports our traditional business has declined, and the dollars generated by new media are growing, but are not yet strong enough to replace it. That means we must also adjust and change in order to continue serving readers, advertisers and our communities. These changes are not unique to Journal Sentinel, but are part of the challenging transformation that many of you know is occurring in our industry.

We need to better align the size of our business to meet these changing needs. We also need to operate our newspaper as efficiently as possible. Over recent years we've shared with you the many business-side initiatives that we have introduced to help control costs and position us to respond quickly as opportunities arise.

Payroll costs are the largest single category of expense for our company. These are the costs that we now need to adjust to the new realities of our business.

Today we are introducing a voluntary separation program for all full time employees at Journal Sentinel with 10 years of service or more. The details regarding the program will be distributed in your department. There will be two different programs offered to two groups of employees. One program will be for the news and editorial department and a second for all other employees.

A voluntary program best meets the needs of our employees and our company. I encourage you to review the material carefully and ask the individuals listed in this letter any questions you might have.

Unfortunately, if there are not a sufficient number of voluntary participants, the company will consider future involuntary terminations to match the size of our employee base with the revenue generated from our operations.

As many of our colleagues choose whether or not to take this offer, I know it will be a difficult time. Please think of the future, and stay focused on your work. We all know this team is capable of great things. We have real confidence in our ability to continue to be a successful company. But we also know it can?t happen without your help.

We understand that programs like this require significant planning and discussion. We have provided a three-week window for employees to consider participating in this voluntary program. Please don't hesitate to contact your HR managers with any questions.

Thanks for all you do for Journal Sentinel every day.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Brenner