McClatchy to cut 1,150 jobs, 10 % of work force

The McClatchy newspaper company announced its second major round of job cuts in three months Tuesday and blamed a sour advertising environment in trimming its payroll by 10 percent.

The McClatchy Co. said it expects half the 1,150 new reductions to come through voluntary buyouts and attrition and the rest through layoffs.

The company said the job cuts and other initiatives across the company would save $100 million over the next year, not including severance costs of about $20 million.

In June, McClatchy also announced a trim to its work force of about 10 percent, which meant the loss of 1,400 full-time jobs and savings of $70 million a year. Two months later, it announced a one-year pay freeze for remaining employees effective Sept. 1.

"It is painful to announce these staff reductions, but the continued restructuring of our company is necessary given the relentless economic downturn and its impact on our business," Gary Pruitt, McClatchy's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

He said the cuts should position McClatchy to grow as a digital company and to deliver "high-quality news and information in whatever medium our readers want to receive it."

The company said it would provide severance and continuation of benefits to affected employees.

The cutbacks already have begun as individual McClatchy newspapers offered voluntary buyouts in recent weeks. Additional reductions are to take effect over the next few months.

In Washington state, McClatchy owns The Bellingham Herald, The Olympian of Olympia, The News Tribune of Tacoma and the Tri-City Herald. In Idaho, it owns the Idaho Statesman.

"The announcement today from McClatchy was a nationwide announcement that included information that Tacoma already announced last week, but there are no specific numbers for Tacoma," said Karen Peterson, executive editor of The News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash.

The Tacoma paper is in the process of accepting voluntary buyout applications, with a deadline of Friday.

Last week, Olympian Publisher John Winn Miller said the paper is offering buyouts to 38 of the newsroom's 45 full- and part-time print and online employees. Tri-City Herald Publisher Rufus Friday has said voluntary layoff packages have been offered to about 60 of the paper's more than 200 employees. He did not immediately return a phone message for comment Tuesday.
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