Californian cuts 12 percent of staff
| Wednesday, Mar 25 2009 12:09 PM
Last Updated Monday, Mar 30 2009 04:23 PM
The Californian cut 26 positions Tuesday, or about 12 percent of its work force, including 14 newsroom layoffs. All were offered severance packages.
Coming on the heels of a 30 percent year-over-year decline in advertising revenues, Tuesday’s cutbacks accompanied companywide pay cuts of 5 percent effective March 30, and an indefinite stop to the company’s contributions to 401(k) plans.
“We have to cut expenses everywhere we can,” President and CEO Richard Beene said in a written statement.
Beene announced Tuesday that Olivia Garcia, publisher of Mercado Nuevo, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Californian, was promoted to become the company’s vice president/content in charge of written and visual content across all the company’s publications.
Mike Jenner will remain as editor and will report directly to Garcia.
Also, Vice President/Interactive Logan Molen was named senior vice president and chief operating officer.
And Vice President/CFO Motoko Komatsubara was appointed senior vice president in charge of all affiliate companies and new revenue initiatives.
In December the newspaper and one of its subsidiaries laid off 25 employees, or about 10 percent of its work force at the time. Seven of those jobs were newsroom positions.
That move followed the elimination of 40 positions In June 2007; only 10 of those resulted in actual layoffs.
Four of the 26 jobs lost Tuesday involved buyouts, and two others resulted from the elimination of vacant positions.
Newspapers across the country have cut their staffs recently as advertising revenues continue to plummet.
On Tuesday, The Houston Chronicle began laying off about 12 percent of its staff “amid unprecedented change in the newspaper industry,” publisher and president Jack Sweeney said in a story posted on the newspaper’s Web site.
That newspaper is owned by Hearst Corp., which stopped printing the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last week. Hearst also has said it may close the San Francisco Chronicle.
