The Washington Post Co plans to cut 80 positions – about 9 per cent of the jobs – from the Washington Post's editorial staff as it grapples with a steady decline in circulation, Reuters has reported. The cuts, which are expected to occur within a year, would come through buyouts and attrition, said Rick Weiss, co-chairman of the Washington Post unit of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild.
"During the past year newspaper revenues have flattened while expenses – particularly newsprint – have continued to rise," Boisfeuillet Jones Jr, the paper's publisher, said in a memo to the staff. Jones said the cuts would come through buyouts and attrition, not layoffs, the New York Times reported.
"The upcoming retirement incentive programs are voluntary and will be designed to allow employees – basically those whose functions will not have to be replaced or can be reassigned – to retire this year with enhanced retirement benefits," said Jones, in an e-mail sent to the newsroom. "They will be offered selectively, only where the newspaper can save costs. These programmes do not involve layoffs.
Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr briefed newsroom staffers in a series of meetings Saturday morning, Weiss said. "The basic news was they're looking to see how to tighten the budget in light of ongoing declines in circulation, which were described as about 4 percent a year... and what were described as flat revenues and increasing newsprint costs," said Weiss, who attended one of the meetings.
Downie told staffers that the buyout would be voluntary, Weiss said. There are about 800 people in the paper's news operation, including reporters, editors and administrative staff, Weiss said. About 600 are represented by the union, he added. Post officials were not immediately available for comment. The goal is to eliminate about 80 full-time positions, Downie said. The paper has nearly 900 newsroom employees, close to its peak employment of just over 900.
The Post last offered buyouts to staff members in December 2003, ultimately losing more than 50 people from the newsroom. They included some of the paper's best-known reporters and editors, including Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist William Raspberry, financial reporter John M. Berry, local columnist Bob Levey and George Solomon, who was assistant managing editor for sports for 28 years.
"Like many newspapers suffering from declining circulation, the Post's revenue has remained flat for several years and its paid subscribers have declined 4 percent a year. Downie told employees that the Post is doing better, financially, than many of its competitors. "But it is obvious that a significant change is taking place in our readership, with a sizable portion of it migrating to the Internet," he said. Downie said that movement is not necessarily a problem, because the newspaper's website is doing well with online advertising, but that the shift is creating a challenge to manage costs and adapt at the same time.
Other cost-cutting measures include the closing of offices that Post foreign correspondents use overseas and eliminating some assistant positions in some of those bureaus. With laptop computers and satellite and cellular phones, many correspondents can work out of their homes, Downie said, and the newspaper is pushing correspondents to become more mobile in their coverage overseas. He added that the Post does not have any plans to eliminate any of its foreign bureaus.
Downie, according to New York Times report, said other cost savings could come from having foreign correspondents cover broad topics – terrorism, say – rather than cover specific countries, thus allowing for the elimination of some foreign bureaus. He said the paper remained committed to covering the war in Iraq and would "absolutely not" pull back from its Baghdad bureau.
He said the paper might merge operations in certain Maryland suburbs, where, he said, it has been clear that some readers will always read The Post and others will always read The Baltimore Sun and there was no point in going to extra lengths to try to make them switch.
The cuts come as the Post and other newspapers are coping with falling circulation and an advertising slump as more people turn to free Web sites to get their news. The Post is building up its website with Internet-only blogs and chat sessions with Post and Post.com staff. It also has launched a radio station.
"It's always worrisome when you cut back at your core newsgathering operation," Weiss said. "There's going to be nothing to serve up to the radio station or the TV or the Web site if we don't have time and people to actually dig out the news and get it right and write our stories."
This month, the Washington Post reported revenue of $252.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2005, down 3 percent from a year earlier. Its advertising revenue fell 7 percent in the quarter, partly because of one less reporting week in 2005 compared with 2004. Daily circulation dropped 4.3 percent, to an average 694,100 in 2005; Sunday circulation fell 4.1 percent, to 969,000.
