Pace Of Downsizing Accelerates
(JANUARY 26, 2007) – The media industry eliminated 17,809 jobs last year, almost twice as many as were slashed in 2005, the outplacement consulting firm Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc. reported from Chicago this week, a trend they say is expected to continue this year.
The figures represent an 88 percent increase in job cuts over the previous year, UPI reports today, and is the industry's largest annual job cut since the bust of the technology job bubble in 2001 when 43,420 media jobs were eliminated.
Challenger Gray & Christmas said the accelerated job cuts last year were due to a change in the way people get and read their news and search for jobs, cars, and consumer products using resources online instead of traditional print products.
The report says one reason the trend will continue this year is the fact that large media companies like The New York Times and Time Inc. have already laid off 2,000 employees in the opening weeks of 2007 in the ongoing shift from print to electronic products.
But the trend isn't confined to just the large newspapers and media giants. Small newspapers and medium-sized publications are following the same path. A current example can be found at The Day in New London, CT, where staff members at the 125-year-old newspaper are being offered buyouts as resources are going to be shifted from print products to the Web. The Day has daily circulation of about 37,500 and Sunday sales of 44,000. They report 20,000 daily readers for their Web site.
Publisher and editor Gary Farrugia told employees that The Day is facing the same pressure for profit and revenues that other national media outlets are facing from 24/7 online news operations, classified advertising, and entertainment listings. As a result, he's reconfiguring resources at The Day Publishing Co. (which includes their eight Times weekly papers) to create "a fully-staffed interactive division that will operate separately from The Day's editorial and newsroom operations."
Of The Day's 400 employees, 32 meet the guidelines for possible buyouts, according to their own news story about the decision. In addition to the buyouts, Farrugia said there will be a 10 percent across-the-board reduction for salary budgets in each division of the company and the Norwich news bureau will close in May.
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