Statesman to cut 25 jobs, slash pay checks
Don @ IdahoRadioNews | March 16, 2009
As hinted this weekend, today is indeed d-day at the Idaho Statesman, according to a memo to employees.
The paper will cut ten percent of its workforce (25 positions), and also cut pay for those workers not eliminated.
Some of the job cuts will not be voluntary:
Where positions are being eliminated, affected employees will be notified over the next two days. Some reductions will be involuntary. Others will provide an opportunity for employees to volunteer to take a severance package where reductions are occurring in work groups of two or more employees. If enough employees do not take the voluntary option, then the positions with the least tenure will be eliminated.
Here’s how the pay cuts break down:
- People making $25,000 to $50,000 will be docked three percent
- Employees making $50,000 to $100,000 will lose six percent of their pay
- Folks making more than $100,000 will be making ten percent less.
Mi-Ai Parrish also tells staff that furloughs may be possible (short term layoffs, usually of a day or two without pay). All annual bonuses have been eliminated:
Other savings include everything from better ink contracts to lighter newsprint, from savings from our press project to our redesign, from cutting daily redelivery of newspapers to dropping dues for industry organizations, from reducing the number of free Scene copies to eliminating low-selling single copy racks. These large and smaller expense cuts saved the equivalent of 99 jobs.
McClatchy Watch has the full memo.
Read (or watch) Doug Petcash’s excellent story on the challenges facing the Statesman, Press-Tribune and the Idaho Falls Post-Register.
I have to tell you from a customer’s perspective, there are a couple of things that have just driven me crazy about the newspapers.
1.) The fact that they want me to pay $15.00 – $20.00 per month to receive their advertising. This dichotomy has always seemed strange to me. I no longer receive the paper at home or the office. I did make an exception a few months back when the Statesman called and offered 7 day service for $2.00 per week for 13 weeks. When they wanted to jack the price after that, I cancelled…again. They know my price point and at a time when you need households and readership, why wouldn’t you work to keep me at the price that I’m willing to pay?
2.) I have run classified ads in the Statesman with no results. I mean ZERO calls. It cost $80.00 to run a 2 week ad for my Corvette that was priced very competitively. NOT ONE CALL. No photo. No frills. Just a basic 4 or 5 line ad for $80.00.
The classified ads could be a goldmine but the old way of doing business prevails and they have 10 ads at $80.00 each ($800.00 gross) vs. 100 ads at $20.00 each ($2000.00 gross).
I won’t subscribe again and I won’t use them to advertise … I hate to see more dislocated workers but from the auto industry to the newspapers, they have got to catch up with the times and change the way they do business!
I don’t know a whole lot about newspapers, but I would have thought they wouldn’t have more than 25 or 30 employees anyways. Do they have a LOT more than this, is this a small percentage? It seems to me that it has to be at least 25% if not more..
Nevermind..I just reread it’s 10%. That’s a lot of employees though..
Jim, in regard to your classified ad problem. Your solution is the newspaper industry’s problem….Use CraigsList or Zidaho or other more efficent media…. Heck, I’ll bet you would have had better luck with the old Thrifty Nickel type papers!!!
Good piece from a smaller-market TV station! I found it humorous that the closing :15 ad was for ZIdaho touting its benefits over newspaper classifieds.
The Press Tribune is debt-free? Is that true for Pioneer Newspapers as a whole or just their operation? They have seemed to nab a lot of new presses and work from Gannett/McClatchy in the west lately – examples: Skagit Valley Herald has a new press and is printing the Bellingham Herald; Idaho State Journal and Logan Herald share printing presses; etc.
Personally, I think print media as a whole is in trouble. From daily papers to yellow pages. When I need to find a number or service I have not looked at the classifieds or the phone book in years. Since the smartphone technology advanced to the point it has I hardly use a computer. Everything is right there in your hand anytime, anywhere.
Qwest has taken steps to secure online/paper customers. It you want your business listed on dex.com you are required to carry a commercial QWEST subscription. With that you get both online and paperback publishing. While I hate it, I also understand it. Webdevelopment is the key.
The Statesmen’s website didn’t pack much of a punch. Alot of information scattered all over the place and it was very hard to find stories by keyword. Make it clean, informative and easy to navigate. My .02
Today was the last print edition of the Seattle PI. It is now an online only newspaper. Staff has been cut from about 170 to somewhere around 20 or so. It is being touted as a new adventure in journalism by management.
Perhaps the Statesman will soon follow in the footsteps of the PI.
Shhhh. I used the Statesman on purpose. At least I can tell my wife I TRIED to sell some of my toys.
Jim, that’s okay… You can go ahead and sell HER stuff using my suggestions….Wont she be happy!? And with the room you save getting rid of all her stuff you can have more room in the garage….to put the couch….so you have a place to sleep…..
I had a similar stroke of No Luck selling a car in the Statesman myself. Nice car, priced right…..zero calls. Listed a car on Craigslist last fall; got a call within 5 minutes and sold it! To quote Kramer….”it was a Festivus Miracle!”
Sorry to hear about more job losses in this fine city though.
If anyone is interested in hearing from the readers of the paper on this move, go to their website and read the comments under todays story regarding the further cutbacks.
I have my doubts anything said here will ever be as critical regarding the paper as is there…. I admire the newspaper for letting them post their opinions there.
I had just pulled into a Fred Meyer parking lot when I heard the news on NPR that the Rocky Mtn News was giving up, as a former Denverite I was stunned. When I went into Freddy’s there was a little table with a guy trying to sell Statesman subscriptions. I don’t read the paper that much….get most of my news from NPR…but I just felt so bad about the Rocky going down that I subscribed to the Statesman for 13 weeks. (I’m a sucker for mini things anyway…and the new size is darling)….Then days later, the PI….and just last night the rumor is the San Francisco Chronicle….again…used to live there, I’m stunned…and Herb Caen is spinning just like Old Man Hearst. I have lots of issues with the Statesman, well ok, all papers….I’m all radio all the time advertising wise, but still these papers going down is truly sad. The end of an era. And while not having internet would kill me, I still am a tad skeptical about getting all my news from my computer. There are too many people who do not chose their “news” websites wisely and believe everything they read. So sorry to hear of the job losses…truly not good for anyone….but kudos for the exec’s at The Statesman dumping bonuses….anyone at AIG listening?
I have been reading the new online PI. It is linking to news sources from around the Pacific Northwest and getting news reports from areas that were previously unthinkable – KOMO TV, the Kitsap Sun, and others, adding perspective that would not otherwise be available. I am not sure I like everything I see, but I do see it as a possible trend that might improve the overall news product. We’ll see.