The McClatchy Co., one of the leading US newspaper publishers, announced its second major round of job cuts in three months and blamed a sour US advertising environment in trimming its payroll by 10 per cent.
Although the announcement yesterday did not specifically refer to layoffs, McClatchy said only half of the 1,150 new reductions would come through voluntary buyouts and attrition.
The company said the job cuts and other initiatives across the company would save USD 100 million over the next year, not including severance costs of about USD 20 million.
Based in Sacramento, California, McClatchy has 30 daily papers, including The Sacramento Bee and The Miami Herald, and about 50 non-daily newspapers.
Many US newspaper companies have undertaken significant cuts this year. Earlier this month, Gannett Co. Said it was cutting about 100 management jobs at its newspapers across the country, less than a month after the nation's largest newspaper publisher eliminated some 1,000 positions.
In June, McClatchy also announced a trim to its work force of about 10 per cent, which meant the loss of 1,400 full-time jobs and savings of USD 70 million a year. Two months later, it announced a one-year pay freeze for remaining employees effective September 1.
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"It is painful to announce these staff reductions, but the continued restructuring of our company is necessary given the relentless economic downturn and its impact on our business," Gary Pruitt, McClatchy's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
McClatchy said would try to maintain editorial quality by sharing staff across newspapers. Papers in Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina, for instance, will share sports and political reporting staff, while the company will take advantage of new technology to share editing and design duties.