Media General to cut 11 percent of work force
Media General, the corporation that owns The Potomac News (my former employer), is cutting almost 11 percent of its work force:
The 750 job cuts are paired with other operating cost reductions, as the company faces a slumping U.S. economy and a deepening recession in Florida, where it has numerous operations, Marshall N. Morton, the company’s president and chief executive said in a news release.
“Media General continues to implement its announced performance improvement initiatives across all parts of the company,” Morton said. “Our efforts to reduce operating costs have necessarily included personnel.”
The publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Tampa Tribune and Winston-Salem Journal said it expects annual savings of $40 million from the job cuts, which will be fully realized next year. Media General will post severance charges of between $4 million and $4.5 million in the second quarter.
Staff reductions, which will decrease the total number of employees to 6,150, are spread across publishing, broadcast and corporate operations. The company did, however, increase positions in its interactive media division as it focuses on the Internet.
The newspaper industry’s woes aren’t confined to Media General, by any means: More than 100 Washington Post journalists are taking a buy-out.
Sad times.
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Law School Time for the Beauster!
Comment by Dmitry — May 24, 2008 @ 11:02
Very readable via mobile.
Comment by Joel 600 — May 25, 2008 @ 14:49