Cleveland Newspaper Cuts Back Journalist Staff

From Editor & Publisher:

Cleveland 'P-D' Cutting 38 More Union Journos

By E&P Staff - Published: October 08, 2008 10:00 AM ET

CHICAGO The Plain Dealer in Cleveland is looking to lop 38 more jobs from the unionized newsroom, and is giving journalists until Nov. 20 to decide whether they want to jump.

If enough employees do not volunteer, P-D Editor Susan Goldberg told the staff, the paper will impose layoffs. The number of resignations the P-D is looking for amounts to about 16% of the 238 newsroom employees represented by the Northeast Ohio Newspaper Guild.

The P-D is offering severance of two week's pay for each year of service -- but no health care benefits.

Goldberg said if necessary layoffs will follow the Guild contract criteria, which include length of service, but also, according to the P-D account "job performance, special skills or abilities, (and) adaptability to future work assignments."

"This is a tough decision," President and Publisher Terry Egger told union members in a meeting Tuesday. "But the end result of what we're trying to do is keep the newspaper strong and able to serve the community for a long time." The meeting was reported late Tuesday on the P-D's Web site by Sarah Hollander.

Egger told the staff that the paper is turning a small profit, but much less than the Newhouse family-owned paper expected, Hollander reported.

This latest round of reductions comes just as the P-D has completed a buyout offer extended to nearly all non-union employees. That package included six to 18 months' pay plus health care benefits.

Egger said 10 non-union newsroom employees had taken the offer, but he declined to give a number for the entire newspaper.

At another Newhouse-owned paper, the Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., executives have said the daily will be sold or shut down unless about 200 non-union employees resign and its unions agree to concessions. It appeared Wednesday the paper was close to meeting its demands.