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Posted on 07/10/2008 7:43:17 PM PDT by Bean Counter
(Vancouver, WA)
The Columbian Publishing Co. has made further job reductions this week as the company struggles to meet operating budgets for the first half of the year. An estimated 20 positions were included in the latest round of layoffs, said Columbian Publisher Scott Campbell.
Eight newsroom employees were a part of the job cuts, six reporters, one photographer and one sports clerk/writer.
"The economy - both nationally and locally - is pretty tough right now," said Campbell "It is impacting news organizations and companies in many business sectors. We have had another decline in advertising revenue over the past year, primarily in classified advertising, and advertising pays about 80 percent of the cost of publishing the newspaper."
The Columbian's economic challenges are mirrored across the industry. U.S. newspapers have cut more than 6,000 jobs in 2008 at papers small and large including the Seattle-Times, Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.
At the Columbian an early retirement incentive program was offered in selected areas, and additional jobs were eliminated as a part of the most recent cutbacks. In total, the company is adjusting expenses in proportion to the advertising losses. Job eliminations have been spread over all operational areas of the company for the last two cutbacks. The first cuts were made in January.
"On top of a weak economy we have soaring costs for newsprint, fuel, and employee medical insurance," Campbell said.
After the job reduction, The Columbian remains among the largest employers in Clark County with 280 workers.
The newspaper also is consolidating some sections to reflect lower advertising volume. In his most recent column, Editor Lou Brancaccio outlined consolidations of the newspaper's Neighbors, Food and Inspirations sections into Life, to create a four-section paper. The changes are intended to save newsprint costs.
Advertising revenue is down at newspapers across the country, according to a recent New York Times article. Nationwide, classified ad revenue fell 24.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008 from a year earlier, and retail ad revenue fell 8.6 percent, driven by advertiser uncertainty about the economy, the Times reported.
The Publisher just sank millions into a brand new building that the paper moved into about 2 months ago. It looks like they will have even more space to let very soon...
Anyway, that leaves SW Washington's only daily with a skeleton staff, a lousy website, and not much else...
Good thing the family owns the presses...maybe they can sell them for scrap metal...
Aaahh, that's such a shame. Tears by me out the heart.
I do not doubt costs are increasing, but the weak economy may be a local thing.
Funny how we keep hearing from old-model news organizations which are sliding toward extinction about the 'weak economy' when it might be their product that is not selling...
You might want to ping the list on this one.
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Say WA? Evergreen State ping
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Never read the Columbian but given what passes for newspapers in Washington State I do not feel as though I missed much.
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