MIAMI (AFP)--The Miami Herald said Wednesday it will sack 19% of
its workforce, or about 175 employees, and slash the wages of
remaining staff, two days after parent McClatchy Co. (MNI)
announced major cuts due to falling revenues.
Herald Publisher David Landsberg also said the remaining staff
will have to to take one week off without pay, as the newspaper
seeks cost-cutting measures to deal with the loss of readership and
revenues.
"About 175 employees will lose their jobs as a result, and we
will eliminate another 30 vacant positions, for a total reduction
of 205. Reductions will occur in all areas of our operation and at
every level in the organization," Landsberg told his employees in
an e-mail.
The Miami Herald said the measures, which included significant
pay cuts, were part of McClatchy Co. decision Monday to eliminate
1,600 jobs, or 15% of its workforce, because of falling advertising
revenue and the weak economy.
McClatchy is the third-largest newspaper chain in the United
States with 30 daily papers, including the Miami Herald, Sacramento
Bee, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Kansas City Star, and about 50
non-dailies.
Like other U.S. newspapers, it has been struggling with a steep
decline in print advertising, falling circulation and the migration
of readers to free news online.
Other recent victims of the media downturn include the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, which told its 170 employees Tuesday they may
lose their jobs as early as next week, and the San Francisco
Chronicle, whose union workers agreed to major concessions to keep
the daily alive. Both papers are owned by the Hearst Corp
(HRS.XX).
The New York Times Co. (NYT) said Monday it had reached a
sale-leaseback agreement to rent out 21 floors of its 52-story
Renzo Piano-designed headquarters to raise $225 million to pay down
debt.