Beacon Journal cuts newsroom staff (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

The Akron Beacon Journal today said it's laying off 40 people in its 161-person newsroom.

Twenty-nine of those positions are full-time. Employees were given 60 days' notice and will receive severance pay amounting to one week's pay for every six months of service.

A representative of the Newspaper Guild/Communications Workers of America, the newsroom union, said the list shows two artists, four photographers, eight copy editors, 11 reporters and four nonunion managers, as well as a librarian, three clerks and all seven student correspondents. That list includes pop music critic Malcolm X Abram and movie critic George Thomas. (An earlier version of this story said 41 people were laid off; a company spokeswoman had provided incorrect information.)

The Akron paper plans to announce more layoffs throughout the rest of the building, in departments such as accounting and circulation, in the next few weeks. The Beacon employs about 710 people.

With the breakup of the Knight-Ridder newspaper group, the Beacon Journal was sold earlier this year to Black Press Ltd.

One after another, U.S. newspapers have been cutting staff as print circulation and advertising revenues decline. The Plain Dealer announced earlier this month its own program, which involves voluntary buyouts rather than forced cuts. The Plain Dealer has not said how many jobs it expects to lose with the buyouts, which top out with an offer, to employees 50 or older with at least 20 years of seniority, that includes 2-1/2 years' pay and health-care benefits.

In June, reporting on the Beacon Journal's sale and a visit from new owner David Black, The Plain Dealer reported:

Bernie Lunzer, executive secretary of the Washington, D.C.-based Newspaper Guild/Communications Workers of America, which represents reporters and some editors at the Beacon Journal and The Plain Dealer, said the union would pay close attention to the Beacon Journal once Black acquires it.

Five years ago, Black bought the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Wayne Cahill, administrative officer for the Guild local there, said Black has honored the contract and “generally kept his word.”

Black also allows the union to examine the newspaper's financial records at any time, said Cahill. “He is not publicly traded and tells us he can live with lower profit margins,” he said. “He has not come in and slashed the staff.”

More...

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/business/15339068.htm
Beacon to cut its news staffing
Dropping profits spur new owner to lay off quarter of newsroom
By Gloria Irwin
Beacon Journal business writer

About one-quarter of the newsroom employees at the Akron Beacon Journal will lose their jobs within the next two months.

``It's a very sad day for the Beacon Journal,'' new publisher Edward R. Moss said Tuesday in announcing 39 layoffs, which he said are necessary to align costs with revenue.

The moves are part of a companywide restructuring that will result in additional job reductions, Moss said.

It was only the second time in the newspaper's 167-year history that there have been layoffs in the newsroom.

In 2001, the newspaper reduced staffing through layoffs and buyouts.

The Beacon Journal has lost revenue from advertisers that have ``cut back significantly and impacted our financial health,'' Moss said. The newspaper is developing a plan to increase revenue, he said.

Other newspapers are facing similar revenue losses and have taken steps to reduce staffing through buyouts and layoffs.

``We're not alone,'' Moss said.

Moss, who was named publisher by new owner David Black on Aug. 7, said the newspaper's profits have fallen by about 50 percent during the last four years.

Canadian publishing company Black Press Ltd. paid $165 million for the newspaper and its Web site, Ohio.com, in June, after the breakup of parent Knight Ridder Inc. was complete.

Black told employees days before the transaction closed that jobs would have to be cut because of revenue losses.

Newsroom layoffs include two artists, eight copy editors, four photographers, 11 reporters, one librarian, three clerks and seven student correspondents. All are members of the Newspaper Guild.

In addition, three management-level editors will lose their jobs and a fourth nonunion position will not be filled.

``There could be the need for further reductions'' in the newsroom if revenue does not improve, Moss said.

Before the cuts, the newsroom had about 160 employees.

Editor Debra Adams Simmons said the layoffs will affect the newspaper.

``We're evaluating everything that we do and everything we need to do to determine the best combination of content possible with the staff that we have,'' she said.

The restructured newspaper's efforts will focus on Summit County, its core market, said Managing Editor Mizell Stewart III.
Gloria Irwin can be reached at 330-996-3720 or at girwin@thebeaconjournal.com.

update...

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003052853
'Beacon Journal' Guild Hits 'Deep Cuts' at Akron Paper

By Joe Strupp

Published: August 24, 2006 2:15 PMET

NEW YORK The Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal's plan to cut 25% of its newsroom staff has local guild leaders worried about the impact on the union's future strength, and the paper's ability to continue covering a five-county area.

"How do we continue to be an effective group?" said Andale Gross, a nine-year reporter at the paper and unit chair for the Northeast Ohio Newspaper Guild, which has 140 members there. "It is a significant loss. How do we ensure that the people who remain can stand strong?"

Of the 40 newsroom staffers destined for layoffs in the cuts that were first announced Tuesday, 36 are members of the guild unit, Gross said. That means slightly more than 25% of the union's power will be lost.

"A number of people who are cut are members of our executive board, potential future leaders," Gross said. "It makes us a smaller group and it puts us in a position where we take a hit."

The cutbacks were the first major move by new owner David Black, president of Black Press, which bought the former Knight Ridder paper from The McClatchy Company earlier this month.

"We are extremely disappointed the employer has decided
to make such deep cuts in the Beacon Journal newsroom," Executive Secretary Mark Davis of the guild local said in a statement Thursday. "Layoffs and buyouts in 2001 had already reduced the newsroom by 20 percent, and now they are chopping another third."

He also noted that "this is a newspaper that has won four Pulitzer Prizes. With such deep cuts, there is no way to maintain the quality journalism to which the Akron area community - readers and advertisers alike - has long been accustomed."

Although the guild is currently in a four-year contract that does not end until 2008, Gross admitted that the layoffs by a new owner raise concerns about how management might engage in future contract negotiations.

"We expect there to be some challenges," Gross said about the future talks. "Negotiations with a new owner: We don't know what that will bring forward. I don't think it is going to be easy."

As for coverage, Gross also indicated concern that the paper may not be able to continue covering the five-county area it has blanketed since he joined up in 1997. He suggested that emphasizing Akron and surrounding Summit County would be the best approach and believed editors were looking at that reassessment.

"We have taken a lot of [staff] hits through the years and we have still acted as a five-county paper," he said. "I don't think we should. We should pull back to take care of Akron and Summit County and go back to the other counties when stories break."

Editor Debra Adams Simmons and Managing Editor Mizell Stewart could not be reached for comment on that issue. Rita Kelly Madick, a spokeswoman for the paper, agreed that a coverage pullback was likely in the offing. "We are used to being a great paper," she said. "And if that means looking at covering a smaller area, it is an obvious one to look at."

But even with a realignment of beats and coverage areas, Gross contends that the layoffs will hurt because they are removing several key writers. "We are losing several sports writers, one columnist who is well-known, the pop music critic, and the movie critic," he said. "It goes by seniority, so essentially beats are being cut."

The seniority approach is a mandate of the guild contract, Gross said. He also said the paper appeared to be implementing the layoffs in the proper way, as the contract dictates. But he said there may be some grievances filed if the guild finds specific people were not treated correctly.

"We want to make sure everyone is following the proper job titles," he said. "The company put together the seniority list so we want to make sure it was done in a way we agree with."

Madick added that further layoffs outside the newsroom are expected in the coming weeks, but offered no more details. "I expect the same level of signifigance throughout the building," she said.

Joe Strupp (jstrupp@editorandpublisher.com) is a senior editor at E&P.

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