NW paper reduces newsroom by 20 percent

luckyducky · Dec 5, 2006

Another paper is cutting jobs...

Kitsap Sun to Reduce Staff in Newsroom
Twenty percent of the staff will need to be cut by the end of the first quarter.

By Chris Barron, cbarron@kitsapsun.com
December 5, 2006

The Kitsap Sun announced Monday it will reduce its newsroom by nine full-time equivalent jobs, or approximately 20 percent of its staff. The reductions will be phased in, beginning in January 2007, said Publisher Mike Levi.

"The reduction in employee costs responds to pressures that have resulted in staff reductions throughout the newspaper industry," Levi said. "Our readers and advertisers are migrating from print newspapers to our online editions, and we are evolving with them.

"But as we do, we must take steps to control our costs while we develop a new economic model that can continue our profitability."

The Kitsap Sun’s newsroom employees, notified two weeks ago of possible staff reductions, were given specifics on the plan in a newsroom meeting late Monday afternoon.

While the Kitsap Sun’s circulation has generally held steady over the past two years, it has seen traditional revenue sources such as classified advertising migrate from the newspaper to the Web. That trend is industry wide.

"While no company welcomes staffing reductions, the Kitsap Sun is committed to a process that is open and fair," Levi said. "In addition, we are offering severance benefits to newsroom staff and managers who voluntarily resign. Our hope is that involuntary reductions will not be necessary.

"The way newspapers operate is changing everywhere, and we’re no different," he added. "Readers increasingly want their news online, they want it immediately and they want the opportunity to be interactive."

The newspaper’s Web site, kitsapsun.com, has more than doubled its readership over the past two years, with more than 130,000 unique visitors per month. The site served up nearly 1.4 million page views in November, an increase of more than 70 percent in just 16 months, Levi said.

The site offers breaking news and e-mail updates, RSS feeds, blogs, games, calendars and multimedia presentations.

"Not only will those features remain on the site, we’ll be adding even more interactivity with the opportunity for readers to post their own information and photos on the site," Levi said.

"Even as we reorganize and adjust internally, Kitsap Sun and kitsapsun.com readers can rest assured we will continue to be the Kitsap region’s premier source for local news and information, in print and online."
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Double J · Dec 6, 2006

Sorry to hear about this, especially at this time of year. Merry F---ing Christmas, eh?

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