NEWARK, NJ (October 10, 2008) – Owners of The Star-Ledger in Newark had sought three concessions from employees to keep from closing or selling the paper: a new contract with union mailers, a new contract with union drivers, and 200 employees to sign up for buy-outs.
They got the deals with mailers and drivers, but now the newspaper has a new problem on its hands: too many employees at New Jersey's largest daily newspaper want out.
More than 400 employees have volunteered for the 200 buy-outs, seeking a year's pay on their way out the Star-Ledger's doors. Publisher George Arwady has said the company will accept as many as 230, so about half of those seeking to leave will be told "no."
Some reports say as many as half of the non-union workforce of 756 offered to take the buy-out. The Star-Ledger says there 335 employees in the non-union newsroom, and most have been working without a wage increase for about three years.
The Star-Ledger is owned by Advanced Publications Inc., and last week the company said that the concessions, the reduced head count, and changes in the way they do business should return them to profitability "even if the advertising outlook doesn't improve."
The company has lost money for the last three years and was projecting losses between $30 and $40 million for 2008 without these changes.
Newspaper analysts say that during the last few months newspaper revenue has been dropping even faster than the expected declines, and that the recent credit crisis and bank failures will cause consumers to buy even less, driving advertisers to cut back even more on their advertising budgets. They also says the downward trend could continue over even into next year, foreshadowing an even more dire prospect for newspapers in 2009.
At other newspapers this week, The New York Times announced that it is closing the Web site of its sister paper, the International Herald Tribune in Paris, and moving that content onto the Times' Web site to create more advertising opportunities; the Houston Chronicle announced a layoff of 10 employees when not enough people stepped forward for buy-outs; 25 part-time workers and 6 full-time employees – including picture editors Sarah Cooke and Sara Kaplow – will be laid off today from the Providence Journal, a move that was rumored two weeks ago but only reported to readers today; and there are rumors of deep cuts coming – again – to the newsroom of the Los Angeles Times, where veteran editor Leo Wolinsky is leaving the paper over editor Russ Stanton's latest newsroom reorganization.
