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Journal cuts 13 employees, eliminates 10 other jobs
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Published: March 31, 2009
The Winston-Salem Journal announced 13 job cuts yesterday as part of a continuing effort to reduce costs in a weak and unstable economy.
Including vacancies, 23 positions were eliminated out of a full-time staff of 260. The Journal also has about 85 part-time employees.
The job cuts affect the newsroom, production, advertising, circulation and finance departments. Two newsroom staffers were let go, and three vacant positions won't be filled.
The affected employees will receive severance packages.
Mike Miller, the paper's publisher, said in a letter to employees: "It's hard as a long-standing business to take such actions, but our most immediate goal is to keep this newspaper, Web site and associated services financially stable during this financial downturn."
Miller said that the paper is seeing some improvement in retail advertising but that classified advertising continues to be very weak.
"We expect the next few quarters to be much like the first quarter of the year," he said. "We will find our way forward through the industry transition and current weak economy."
It is the third job-cut announcement by the Journal since December, totaling 37 positions through eliminated positions and unfilled vacancies.
In recent weeks, the newspaper also has reduced the number of pages, eliminated weekly redelivery in the Winston-Salem area, and reduced vendor support and circulation-promotion spending. Employees have taken and will continue to take unpaid furlough days.
Many newspapers in North Carolina and around the country have made multiple staff cuts in the past two years in an effort to control expenses.
According to the Internet blog Paper Cuts, there have been more than 23,000 newspaper jobs eliminated since the start of 2008.
There have been nearly 800 newspaper jobs eliminated in North Carolina in that time, according to the N.C. Employment Security Commission and newspaper reports. That includes 82 at The Charlotte Observer and 78 at the News & Observer of Raleigh this month, part of a consolidation initiative by their parent company, the McClatchy Co.
Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst for the Poynter Institute, a journalism-research center, said he also has seen signs of more retail spending in recent weeks.
"But it's nothing to take to the bank yet," he said.
"A job cut the size that the Winston-Salem Journal has just done is not terribly unusual for newspapers in 2009, although the job cuts typically are coming on top of layoffs made in 2008."
Edmonds said that "the pressure on newspapers to keep their expenses down is intense," particularly for the publicly traded newspaper chains trying to keep their debt ratings from going lower. The Journal is owned by Media General, based in Richmond, which owns newspapers, television stations and related Web sites, mainly in the Southeast.
"For the most part, they are doing what they need to in order to get through this financial storm." Edmonds said.
■ Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com.
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