Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Carnage!... McClatchy says it will eliminate 10 percent of its workforce... also slashes dividend in half **updated**

UPDATE 9/17: Tally of cuts at individual newspapers here.

McClatchy announced Tuesday it has cut its quarterly dividend by half and says it will make additional reductions of roughly ten percent of its work force.

Separately McClatchy announced an additional cost restructuring to reduce its workforce by about 10%, or approximately 1,150 full-time equivalent employee positions (FTE's) as the company manages through today's difficult advertising downturn and positions itself for future success in an increasingly competitive environment. McClatchy said roughly half of the staff reductions are coming through voluntary programs and managed attrition. The company expects to achieve savings of $100 million over the next four quarters, excluding severance costs of approximately $20 million, from the staff reductions along with other savings initiatives. This represents a savings of more than 6% of total cash expenses based on cash expenses over the last 12 months.
McClatchy also said its August revenues were down compared to a year ago.

...consolidated revenues in August 2008 decreased 15.7% and advertising revenues were down 17.8% compared to revenues in August 2007.
Is this real? (Update: yes, it's for real.) If I understand this correctly, the ten percent workforce cut is in addition to the 1,400 positions McClatchy eliminated in June. The reduction includes the buyouts McClatchy launched August and September at 13 newspapers, according to this account.

Wow, this is serious stuff. I keep looking at the reports to see if my eyes are deceiving me. Stay tuned as more details emerge. And as always, pass on additional news in comments.

UPDATE: At the Miami Herald, 119 more positions will be eliminated. (10 percent!)
At the Modesto Bee, 12 more positions will be eliminated.
At the Kansas City Star, "no comment."
At the Wichita Eagle, 6 more positions will be eliminated. (16 others just accepted buyouts.)
At the Bradenton Herald, 44 positions (including buyouts offered last month)
At the Lexington Herald-Leader, "no announcement yet"

I'll update as more news comes in. Leave additional info in comments, or email me.
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Previous:
Readers choose official Gary Pruitt theme song: "It's the end of the world as we know it" by R.E.M.
McClatchy's Bloody Monday update
List of McClatchy buyouts during August and September - updated

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

They may still call this McClatchy, but as far as many of us are concerned, it's now Knight Ridder.

Anonymous said...

Madness, totally insane madness.

Anonymous said...

Madness it is!!!Please, those who are left run find something else to do and get on with your life. This is a death of what we once knew.

Anonymous said...

Knight Ridder was great compared to McClatchy better yet "Gary's Paper"

Anonymous said...

Remember this? http://www.mcclatchy.com/welcome