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The Des Moines Register, Iowa’s largest newspaper, could begin reducing its staff over the coming months, sources inside the company told the Iowa Independent today.
Today's front page (Courtesy: The Newseum)
Carolyn Washburn, The Register’s vice president and editor, told a gathering of editorial employees Thursday afternoon that the paper had done as much as it could to reduce expenses, but that it wasn’t enough. According to several sources at the meeting, Washburn said that in the coming months there would most likely be a reduction in payroll in the editorial department.
Sources say Washburn spoke mostly in generalities and “claimed” she hasn’t made up her mind as to what or when, but it is expected that the layoffs will come soon. When asked by a staff member if buyouts would be offered, a practice that has been used at other papers around the country, she said that decision has not yet been made.
She did, however, mention the success of the 10 community papers and the company’s niche publications, like the weekly Juice, leading those in attendance to believe those publications are safe and the cuts will come from the Register’s newsroom, which at last count had around 200 full-time staffers.
“There is not a lot of positive work being done in the newsroom,” one staff member said. “All the old heads think they are going to be cut (because of high salaries), and all the young bucks think they are going to go.”
Several staffers said they were upset because the paper is sending an editorial writer to Finland and Canada and two reporters to the Olympics while getting ready to cut staff. They think the money would be better spent keeping reporters in Des Moines.
In an interview this afternoon, Susan Patterson Plank, the paper’s vice president of marketing and digital development, downplayed the newsroom staffs fears and said Thursday’s meeting was scheduled a month ago to discuss projects and priorities for the rest of the year. The topic of layoffs was brought up, she said, but only upon questioning by the staff.
“It’s a question that comes up,” she said. “But we didn’t announce any layoffs. We depend on businesses like retail and real estate that are going through tough times, and so we’re going through some tough times. So we’re certainly evaluating things.”
Plank said like many businesses, The Register cannot rule out future staff reductions, but there are currently no concrete plans to move in that direction.
The discussion did not come as a shock to most of the staff, according to sources who attended the meeting. Last month Gannett Co. Inc., The Register’s parent company, reported a 36-percent plunge in second-quarter profits. The company earned $233 million in the second quarter, compared with $366 million in the same period a year ago. The year-earlier profit was boosted by gains on the sale of several newspapers. Excluding those gains, the decline in earnings was 18 percent.
Gannett does not break down earnings by individual paper, so the financial solvency of The Register is hard to quantify. But the paper’s circulation figures, like those of newspapers around the country, are pointing downward. Circulation has fallen virtually every year since 1994, when The Register’s daily circulation stood at 184,959 and Sunday at 318,542. By 2007, those numbers had fallen to 146,050 daily and 233,229 on Sundays.
In May the paper reduced the width of its pages. In a story explaining the move, Washburn said it was to make the paper “easier to handle” and more readable, however most observers viewed it as a way to cut printing costs.
Several Gannett papers have announced staff reductions recently, including The Honolulu (Hawaii) Advertiser, which announced in mid-July that it is laying off 54 employees – about 9 percent of its workforce – because of a downturn in advertising revenues. The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., announced today that it will trim 20 jobs and continue freezing an unspecified number of open positions.
According to a study released last month by the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), 59 percent of the 259 newspapers participating in their survey had reduced full-time newsroom staff over the past three years, mainly because of financial pressures. Roughly the same number (61 percent) also reported a decrease in their overall newshole — the physical space in the paper available for stories.
PEJ’s 2008 “State of the News Media” report found that since 2000 newspapers had shed 5,500 jobs, or roughly 10 percent of the workforce.
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