Updated at 7:30 p.m. eastern: Stung by declining ad rates, the New York Times will slash its workforce by 4 percent during the next three quarters. That’s about 500 jobs, including 250 in the New York Times Media Group — roughly 45 positions from the Times newsroom alone. Another 160 or so jobs will be cut at the New England Media Group, including about 35 from the Boston Globe. Cuts also will take place across the other media properties and corporate staff. No mention of recent acquisition About.compress release.
Meanwhile, Knight Ridder hopes to use buyouts to cut the staffing in Philadelphia by 15 percent — 75 jobs — at the Inquirer and nearly 20 percent — 25 jobs — at the incredibly shrinking Daily News. Job cuts are the next step if the 100 total isn’t achieved. No other KR papers are affected — for now. The Philly papers account for roughly $400 million in annual ad sales; ad revenue dipped by low single digita this year. The chain announced recently that fallout from Hurrican Katrina would reduce 3Q ad revenues by 20 percent.
More to come as we assess the impact on the digital operations.
Update: NYT Digital: I’ve confirmed that About.com is not affected. As for the digital news crew, Catherine Mathis, VP-corporate communications, said via email: “Generally, we do not expect reductions at NYTimes.com or Boston.com but we may be able to find efficiencies by combining certain administrative functions at these units with other parts of the Company.”
Philly.com: I’m told the digital operations aren’t included. I should note that doesn’t mean they won’t take a hit in terms of the newsrooms’ contribution to the site. Every newsroom cutback makes it that much harder to get people to add even more responsibilities. Cutbacks also can sap energy.
Subscriber content
?
Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Comments have been disabled for this post