More signs that the newspaper industry is crumbling

[susu369]

Amid another round of belt-tightening, the Ledger-Enquirer and Macon Telegraph newspapers said Thursday that production work will be shifting from Macon, Ga., to Columbus in April. The Ledger-Enquirer will print the Macon newspaper seven days a week.

The move will mean the layoff of 58 employees at the Telegraph, nearly 30 percent of the company’s work force, Telegraph Publisher George McCanless said in a Telegraph story Thursday.

At the same time, Ledger-Enquirer Publisher Valerie Canepa said the newspaper is preparing to make additional job and expense cuts because of a deteriorating financial outlook.

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“We don’t have a readership problem,” Canepa said. “We have a revenue problem.”

McCanless said the decision to move printing of the Telegraph to its sister paper in Columbus will amount to savings of more than $1 million annually.

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Canepa declined to say how much Sacramento, Calif.-based The McClatchy Co. has mandated the Ledger-Enquirer eliminate from its budget. More details will be available within two weeks, she said.

=snip=

The announcements in Columbus and Macon came the same day Gary Pruitt, McClatchy’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, said the company is freezing employee pensions and temporarily halting matching contributions to workers’ 401(k) savings plans. The retirement plan moves take effect March 31.

McClatchy owns the Ledger-Enquirer and Telegraph, as well as larger newspapers such as The Miami Herald, THe Kansas City Star and The Sacramento Bee.

Full story:
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/102/story/607929.html

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. What needs to die is the cable MSM pieces of crap, which are all Republican and corporatist nt

[JHB]

2. Odds are they don't have a revenue problem either, What they probably have is...

...a corporate management problem, with too high an expectation of what their profits "should" be.

[Hoopla Phil]

3. Reality is that fewer people are buying newspapers.

The Big Newspapers need to scale back to the size needed to serve the smaller audience. If they keep trying to be "Big Newspapers" without the sales to support it they will not cover they operating costs. That means across the board scaling back. Smaller buildings, smaller equipment, smaller staff, and smaller salaries for the execs.

[brer cat]

4. No newspaper here

I can no longer get AJC here...delivered or at the grocery store.