Hearst Corporation announced today that its San Francisco Chronicle newspaper is undertaking critical cost-saving measures including a significant reduction in the number of its unionized and nonunion employees. If these savings cannot be accomplished within weeks, Hearst said, the Company will be forced to sell or close the newspaper.
We’re approaching an end-game of the current leveraged newspaper business. It’s going to be seriously more ugly from now on at many big papers.
More on this in a post tomorrow…
on Mar 11th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
At about the same time, the Houston Chronicle, another Hearst outlet, has cut its Monday and Tuesday editions to next to nothing. The editorial and op-ed “pages” now share the same page, the business section isn’t a section any more, folded in with the regional news pages, and the classified ads are down to a few pages. Don’t know what’s going on in the newsroom, but it can’t be good. But the Chron still has more comics than any paper I’ve ever come across, though they refuse to carry Broom Hilda.