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Home > BizTimes Daily > Archives > July 2, 2008
Journal Sentinel to eliminate 10 percent of its workforce
Published July 2, 2008 - BizTimes Daily
Journal Sentinel Inc. announced today it will reduce its workforce by about 10 percent of its approximately 1,300 full-time equivalent employees to address the impact of "a challenging advertising environment."
The company publishes the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and is a subsidiary of Journal Communications Inc.
The restructuring will be accomplished through a combination of voluntary and involuntary separations, as well as managed attrition. The separations are expected to be complete by the end of the year. Employees in both the voluntary and involuntary separation programs will receive both cash severance and a healthcare benefit.
"Our advertising customers - especially car dealers, real estate agents, hiring officials, retailers and financial institutions - have been battered by a 'perfect storm' of deteriorating credit conditions, slowing home sales, contracting company size and higher gas prices. All of these forces have driven ad spending down. As a result, Journal Sentinel ad revenues are running more than 12 percent below last year through May. At the same time, the costs of running our business are rising, with newsprint and fuel price increases becoming a concern," said Elizabeth (Betsy) Brenner, president and chief operating officer of Journal Communications publishing group.
"As a local news organization, we reach 83 percent of our market every week through our print and online products. Our challenge continues to be operating as efficiently as possible. We need to perform financially in a manner that enables us to invest in the future, and continue to serve our readers and advertisers with the quality products they expect. We have successfully begun to change from a traditional newspaper company to an integrated multimedia company. We need to continue to support our exceptional print publications as well as our developing online options and other commercial businesses."
"This is a difficult and painful message, and it's being delivered at a time when our work has never been better. We remain committed to growing our audience by providing the leading local coverage that has distinguished our organization." Brenner said.
Responding to an e-mail question from BizTimes about how many employees in the Journal Sentinel newsroom would be affected by the job eliminations, Brenner replied, "We don't know yet. It depends on the number of employees who come forward to apply for the voluntary offer. Once we have that number totaled, we'll evaluate and determine how many jobs will come out of each department - including the newsroom."
