Atlanta Journal-Constitution Cutting 30 Percent Of News Staff

 

ATLANTA, GA (March 25, 2009) – Journalists at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution learned this morning that their full-time news staff will be cut by about 90 people – 30 percent of the newsroom workers – and that distribution of the paper is being reduced by 2 percent as seven outlying Georgia counties will no longer receive the paper.

There are 323 current newsroom employees at the Cox Newspapers daily and after the cuts they expect to have 230 full-time positions in the newsroom, the AJC reported today.

Staffers with five years or more will be offered voluntary buyouts. If target numbers are not reached, then there will be layoffs.

Editor Julia Wallace said most of the cuts will come in managers and the production department as the paper "tries to keep as many news reporters as possible."

Yesterday 48 part-time employees were laid off, and then this morning the additional cuts were announced.

In 2006 there were more than 500 newsroom workers. This is the paper's third round of job cuts, and the largest slash. There were buyouts in 2006 and 2008.

The paper has a redesigned scheduled to launch in late April, and the managers expect the reduced newsroom and an emphasis on the Web product to return them to profitability by 2010, they said today.

The reduction in the circulation area will allow the AJC to cut another 107 full- and part-time jobs in the circulation department, the paper reported today.

Last year Cox cut 300 employees from one of their other papers, The Palm Beach Post, and another Cox paper – the Austin American-Statesman – is up for sale in Texas. Last week Cox closed their Washington, DC, bureau as well. Cox national photographer and picture editor Rick McKay, who was based in the bureau, yesterday was named to be one of the official White House Photography Office picture editors who will work for official White House photographer Pete Souza in the administration of President Barack Obama.

Cox Enterprises makes the vast majority of their income from Cox Cable and from their national Auto Trader business. Less than 20 percent of Cox revenue in past years has been from their newspapers.

 

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