Monday, September 1, 2008

Analysts: the need for layoffs at the Sacramento Bee depends on the economy

Business Journal:

As The Sacramento Bee seeks to make deeper cuts to its work force, industry observers said the company doesn’t have much choice as advertising revenue continues to come up short.

Whether more cuts are necessary to keep the paper profitable depends in large part on what happens with the economy — and advertising revenue, analysts said.

The Sacramento Bee on Monday offered the newspaper’s first broad-based buyouts in its history, inviting a majority of its full-time work force to take a voluntary severance. The paper — part of money-making but debt-ridden The McClatchy Co. — employs almost 1,200 people.

The move marks the second round of buyouts at The Bee, and falls on the heels of a companywide wage freeze imposed two weeks ago. The paper’s first-ever layoffs came two months ago, and publisher Cheryl Dell hinted that more layoffs could occur.


Ad revenues might not improve that much when the economy improves -- people with products to sell are using Craigslist and EBay and the internet.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Not to mention that traditional retail advertisers in The Sacramento bee are either going bankrupt, or developing their own data driven marketing plans.