The News Tribune will trim its 458-person full-time staff by 18 more employees, the newspaper’s publisher, David Zeeck, told employees Wednesday.
Seventeen of those workers are accepting voluntary buyout deals. One will be laid off.
The staff reductions are the latest step in the paper’s plan to keep the publication profitable as advertising revenues fall with the declining economy.
Eighty-two News Tribune workers left in an earlier round of reductions in July.
“This has been a very stressful and difficult summer and fall,” said Zeeck, “because of the necessity to cut employees.”
But those cuts, along with other expense reductions and revenue enhancements, have helped keep the 125-year-old publication in the black, he said.
“The profit margin has been squeezed, but it still exists,” the publisher said. “That’s one of my three goals: to keep this newspaper in the black, prepare for the future and preserve as many jobs as we can.”
Six of the 18 departures will come from the newsroom’s staff of 103 full-time workers. Four of the six who will leave are reporters.
“That’s more reporter power than we wanted to lose,” Zeeck said.
Executive Editor Karen Peterson said that because of that disproportionate loss, the paper plans to shift other newsroom staff members into reporting.
With the move toward coordination at The News Tribune and The Olympian, can an announcement from The Olympian be far behind?
Hat tip: Paper Cuts
.
Previous:
Tacoma's News Tribune offers buyouts to 189 full-time employees
Prediction: McClatchy will regionalize newspapers
1 comment:
They would be better off if they fired all of the editorial board and switched that money to marketing and circulation.
The arrogant assholes who opine on all have forgotten that their primary function is to fill the spaces between the advertisments.
Post a Comment