More bad news for newspapers

Another blow to the newspaper business came Wednesday when the Los Angeles Times announced plans to cut 250 positions across the company, including 150 positions in the newsroom and Web content departments.

The Times also is reducing the numbers of pages it publishes each week by 15 percent. Youch.

For a person whose career was born in the traditional newspaper business, these stories are getting more difficult to see and, yes, to report.

That I'm posting this story on an Internet news site means that solid journalism will survive despite the print business falling apart. But if journalists working in print outlets aren't looking at these cuts and wondering what is happening when the number crunchers at their newspapers start trying to get to the bottom line, then they must be asleep. They're going to have to wake up and see a journalism career that goes beyond print.

In an announcement to the staff, Times Editor Russ Stanton said the cuts were needed to bring expenses into line with declining revenue, and reducing the numbers of pages published also will cut costs.

"You all know the paradox we find ourselves in," Stanton said in a memo to the staff. "Thanks to the Internet, we have more readers for our great journalism than at any time in our history. But also thanks to the Internet, our advertisers have more choices, and we have less money."

He also noted that the poor economy had struck particularly hard at the California housing market, traditionally a robust source of advertising revenue for The Times.

The cuts reflect conditions across the newspaper industry, which is confronting sharply deteriorating print advertising revenues. Although online ad revenues are rising, they have not made up for the losses. Amid the current nationwide economic slowdown, the prospects are for continued revenue shrinkage through the end of this year.

Times Publisher David Hiller said the goal of the cuts was to "get to where we need to be for the long term. We want to get ahead of the economy that's been rolling down on us and get to a size that will be sustainable." He said the size of the reductions was predicated on the expectation that the economy would "bottom out and reach equilibrium" early next year. The editorial staff cuts will be among 250 positions cut across all departments of The Times, including circulation, marketing and advertising, Hiller said. Companywide employment will be about 3,000 after the reductions, he said.

The editorial staff cuts will be spread between the print newsroom and The Times' Web operations and are to be completed by Labor Day. The two operations currently employ about 876 people, meaning that the editorial staff will remain above 700. The paper would continue to have one of the largest corps of editors and reporters in the country. Details on the reductions, including severance terms, will be forthcoming.

 

 

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