The McClatchy Company, one of the nation’s biggest newspaper chains, said Monday that it would cut its work force by 10 percent, or around 1,400 people, after having already eliminated about 2,000 jobs over 18 months.þþAs the newspaper industry suffers through both a long-term contraction and a sluggish economy, McClatchy has been hit harder than most, because it relies heavily on the troubled California and Florida markets. McClatchy, based in Sacramento, Calif., reported Monday that for the first five months of the year, its revenue dropped 14.2 percent from the prior year.þþThe deepest cut will hit The Miami Herald, one of McClatchy’s largest papers, which told its staff on Monday that it would eliminate 250 jobs, or 17 percent of its work force.þþIn a memorandum to McClatchy employees, Howard C. Weaver, vice president for news, said that across the company, 310 to 320 newsroom positions would be cut, or about 9 percent of the total. In recent years, McClatchy has bucked the industry trend by avoiding deep staff cuts, particularly in its newsrooms.þþIn the new round of cuts, “there will be voluntary buyouts, there will be some layoffs, and there will be some managed attrition,” said Elaine Lintecum, McClatchy’s treasurer. She said the buyouts and layoffs would be carried out quickly.þþMcClatchy owns The Sacramento Bee, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Kansas City Star, The Charlotte Observer, two dozen smaller daily newspapers, 50 nondaily papers and large stakes in some major Internet companies like CareerBuilder.þþAd revenue at McClatchy’s newspapers fell 15.4 percent this year through May from 2007, the company reported Monday. Ad revenue dropped more than 22 percent at its California and Florida papers, reflecting the severity of the housing crisis there. Classified ads for real estate and employment are off about 36 percent, accounting for more than half the decline in revenue.þþIn April, McClatchy reported a first-quarter loss of just under $1 million on $488 million in revenue.þ
Source: NY Times
