Hearing 128 fulltime positions will be hacked off at the Sac Bee. About 11 percent of the total employees. Email from the publisher announced the total cuts.Can anybody confirm? Or forward the email? The 11% figure is less than the 15% company-wide figure the company announced today. I'll post more info as it comes in.
UPDATE: Confirmed. Thanks to readers who posted the email and forwarded it to me. I posted the full email from Cheryl Dell here.
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5 comments:
Enjoy!
MEMO TO: All Employees
FROM: Orage Quarles III
DATE: March 9, 2009
SUBJECT: Expense Reductions
On February 5, McClatchy announced plans to further reduce operating expenses as a result of the ongoing and unprecedented economic pressures and revenue declines. Today, McClatchy released additional information about these expense reductions. The press release is available on McClatchy's corporate website.
Here at The News & Observer, we are experiencing advertising losses greater than any of us have ever seen in our history. As the economy declines, so do our revenues. We are still developing expense reduction plans to offset these losses, but the plans are not quite final. We understand how disruptive the last several weeks have been and how announcements by other McClatchy papers increase concerns about the future. We apologize for the delay but want to make sure we carefully review every option before making final decisions. We anticipate communicating these decisions to you over the next couple of weeks.
Our future success is dependent on the hard work you do every day. We know these repeated announcements and ongoing restructuring are difficult and disruptive, but we respectfully ask for your continued focus, even in these difficult circumstances.
Please contact your department manager or human resources if you have any questions.
From the Kansas City Pitch:
To all employees:
Last month, McClatchy announced plans to further reduce operating expenses as a result of the ongoing economic downturn and unprecedented decline in advertising revenue. Today, McClatchy released additional information about these expense cuts, including a workforce reduction of about 15 percent and wage cuts across the board. The press release is available on McClatchy's corporate website.
As you know, The Star is also experiencing advertising losses greater than any of us have ever seen. Like all other companies and industries, we are making dramatic changes to survive this recession and come out safe and profitable on the other side.
We are in the final stages of our expense reduction plans and expect to implement our cuts within a week or so. But it's safe to assume our workforce reduction here at The Star will be in line with the overall McClatchy number of 15 percent, or about 150 people locally.
In addition, we are implementing wage reductions for all employees. Most whose compensation is less than $100,000 annually will receive a wage reduction in the 5% range, beginning on April 20. Those above that amount will receive a 10% reduction. We also are eliminating bonuses for all senior managers and certain other employees. Every employee affected by a wage reduction will receive a letter detailing the impact of the reduction on their pay and will have the opportunity to ask questions.
I fully understand and appreciate how disruptive the last several weeks have been and how announcements by other McClatchy papers, and by newspapers owned by other companies, increase concerns about our future. Saying goodbye to good friends and colleagues is heartbreaking, and I apologize that we must still wait a bit before notifying the employees involved. And I am sorry that wage cuts for the rest of us are necessary. We have worked extremely hard these past few weeks to minimize such cuts by reducing other expenses in areas across the company.
I know this ongoing restructuring is discouraging and disruptive. But your efforts during this time to keep this company stable and successful have been absolutely outstanding. Not only have you kept our newspaper safe, you have made heroic progress toward successfully transitioning The Star to a multimedia, multi-platform future. Even during this difficult time, we remain far and away our region's preeminent source for news and advertising. When the economy recovers we will be well-positioned for future growth.
Thank you for everything you are doing. As always, if you have any questions about this announcement or other issues, please contact your department manager or human resources.
Regards,
Mark
Identical memo's to the Tacoma and Olympia papers. If they are going to do a corporate memo, why try to personalize it by having each publisher issue a memo they did not write?
When the economy recovers we will be well-positioned for future growth.
Man, this bastard is as pickled as his wife.
If they are going to do a corporate memo, why try to personalize it by having each publisher issue a memo they did not write?
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It is in their genes. They're conditioned to taking AP stories and embellishing them to fit their agenda. That is McClatchy Journalism.
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