By: Joe Strupp The parent company of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel announced Tuesday it will reduce its workforce by 92 employees, or 6.2%, due to declining advertising revenue.
The reductions include 37 voluntary buyouts in the Journal Sentinel newsroom announced last week. Most of those departing are expected to leave the company this month, a story on the paper's Web site stated.
"The advertising recession continues to affect our business," Steven J. Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of Journal Communications Inc., the paper's owner, said in a statement. "While these changes are difficult, we must be diligent about reducing our expense platform in order to preserve the overall strength of the Journal Sentinel through and beyond this challenging time."
Journal Communications anticipates gross workforce reduction charges of between $4 million and $5.5 million during the second half of the year, primarily through the voluntary and involuntary job reductions at the paper in the third quarter along with reductions in workforce at its printing and direct marketing businesses, the story added.
"We will continue to maintain our high quality local news focus and keep our audience penetration high," Elizabeth Brenner, president and publisher of the Journal Sentinel, told her paper. "We will align our costs to a smaller revenue base while delivering a newspaper and other products that are attractive to our readers and advertisers. We will be responsive to the evolving mix of print and digital products our customers are looking for. Through it all, we remain committed to being the leading news gathering organization in southeastern Wisconsin."
In 2008, revenue in the company's publishing division fell 9.1%, to $242 million from $266.1 million a year earlier, the paper reported. Through the first six months of 2009, publishing revenue was down 20.4%, to $97.6 million from nearly $122.6 million, it added.
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