More layoffs are coming to the Tucson Citizen. This memo was sent to Citizen staffers:
Citizen employees,
As all of you are aware, our national and local economy has been struggling for the better part of two years. The housing market crisis has spread to many other businesses causing a continued negative impact on our revenues. Newspapers are caught in a double bind: economic downturn and advertising revenue being siphoned off into other mediums.
In light of these difficult business conditions, the U.S. Community Publishing division of Gannett, to which we belong, has asked each of its newspaper sites to reduce expenses by reducing the number of people we employ. Each site was given a target based on its financial performance.
As we determine how best to achieve our target, we will ensure that the reductions are consistent with our strategic objectives.
For the Community Publishing division as a whole, the payroll reduction amount translates to roughly 1,000 fewer positions, requiring about 600 people to be laid off. That’s a reduction of about 3 percent.
At TNI and the Citizen, our target is about 30 positions – about 2 percent of the combined workforce. At TNI, about half of the reductions will need to come from layoffs. At the Citizen, the staff reductions will come primarily through layoffs.
Upon our review and followed by approval from the Community Publishing division, individuals being laid off will be notified by the end of August. A severance package of a minimum of two weeks pay plus one week of pay for each year of service (52 week maximum) will be provided and medical benefits will continue throughout the severance period. Other benefits that may be available will be discussed on an individual basis.
While we prefer to avoid further staff reductions, we must be realistic and understand that if revenues continue to decline, payroll reductions may be
evaluated again in the future.
I believe that what we create here with the newspaper and Web site will continue to be relevant and reliable sources of information. Nearly two-thirds of all adults in Pima County read one of the two newspapers and/or look at the Web sites every week.
While these steps we are taking are painful, I hope we can all emerge from this economic downturn stronger.
Jennifer Boice
Interim Editor
This article appears in Aug 14-20, 2008.
Questions…
• “A severance package of a minimum of two weeks pay plus one week of pay for each year of service (52 week maximum) will be provided and medical benefits will continue throughout the severance period.”
Why the parenthesis? Does the Tucson Citizen really have employees who have worked there for over 50 years?
• “Nearly two-thirds of all adults in Pima County read one of the two newspapers and/or look at the Web sites every week.”
This is whimsical, because the Tucson Citizen is quite liberally borrowing their prideful statistics from the Arizona Daily Star. Were they to discount how the star figures into that stat, it would be more like 1/20.
“Newspapers are caught in a double bind: economic downturn and advertising revenue being siphoned off into other mediums.” BS. No one reads newspapers anymore because they 1) they suck, 2) they carrly mostly wire stories you can get for free on the web, and 3) craigslist is free. If it weren’t for sports no one would read them.
Rammer,
Keep taking ’bout nothing – if you knew that stats, you’d know that the Citizen reaches nearly as many readers as the Star – online.
I feel sorry for folks who will lose their paychecks. However, both The Citizen and The Star have been piles of crap for a while. The people of Southern Arizona would be much better served if they both disappeared and in their place rose a publication that actually kicked people in the mouth and held people accountable. Retrorv is right. People, like myself, have stopped reading newspapers simply because they suck and few have retained their guts or any sense of quality.
Jesus christ why does anybody give a rat’s ass about sports coverage! You might as well be writing about paperclips!
So, IntheKnow, just what are those stats you mentioned? If you know ’em, share ’em. Otherwise, you’re just putting forth an unfounded claim.
IntheKnow, James, Rammer, etc.: Online Web site visitor trackers including compete.com and quantcast.com show the Citizen Web site reaching about half–or less–the amount of people that Azstarnet reaches. Check it out for yourself!