The Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest newspaper, will cut its newsroom staff about 40 percent by year’s end, one of the largest reductions in a single move by a major American paper.þþThe paper will give buyouts to about 150 news employees who requested them, managers told employees on Friday, after years in which the paper resisted the broad newsroom cuts that have been become commonplace across a troubled industry. Advance Publications, owner of The Star-Ledger, has said the paper was on track to lose about $40 million this year as print advertising declines sharply.þþAdvance said in August that it needed at least 200 of the paper’s roughly 750 nonunion employees from many departments to leave through a voluntary buyout offer. Otherwise, it would sell the paper, the company said, and any new owner would probably resort to layoffs rather than buyouts.þþBuyers for newspapers have been scarce lately, and executives later suggested that they might close the paper rather than sell it.þþOriginally, company executives said they expected that more than 100 of the roughly 330 newsroom employees, who are nonunion, would take buyouts. Later, they changed the estimate to about 130.þþIn a memorandum sent Friday to The Star-Ledger’s workers, George Arwady, the publisher, said, “We received far more applications” than the paper had sought, and some would be turned down. He said managers were starting to tell employees whether their requests had been accepted, and all applicants would know by the end of this week.þþAlso Friday, executives told employees the buyouts would take effect in three stages, concluding on the last day of the year. þþSome newsroom employees, who asked that they not be named because they were not authorized to disclose internal matters, said there might be some new hiring, so that the net reduction in the newsroom would be somewhat less than 150.þþThe employees also said that in a meeting, Mr. Arwady had raised the prospect that the Star- Ledger could sell its headquarters in Newark and move to smaller quarters — as many papers around the country have done. Advance also won some concessions from The Star-Ledger’s union employees, including work rule changes and buyouts.þþThe Star-Ledger had a weekday circulation of 345,000 early this year, ranking 15th among American newspapers. Advance is owned by the Newhouse family.þþ
Source: NY Times
