A.H. Belo, Journal's owner, plans to reduce staff by 500
12:34 PM Mon, Jul 28, 2008 | Permalink
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A.H. Belo Corp. of Dallas, Texas, whose holdings include The Providence Journal and Dallas Morning News, plans to reduce company-wide employment by the equivalent of 500 full-time jobs -- about 14 percent of the company's work force. Howard G. Sutton, publisher, president and CEO of The Providence Journal, today told editors that the staff reductions here would be less than 5 percent. If the company does not reach the target number through a voluntary severance program to be completed by mid-September, "an involuntary reduction-in-force will be necessary,'' the company said in a letter to shareholders issued today. A.H. Belo also said it also will cut marketing and overall promotion expense, as well as travel costs and other discretionary expenses, and reduce the width of the newspapers in Providence and Riverside, Calif. Robert W. Decherd, A.H. Belo's chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in a letter to employees today that these and other steps are a response to "the unprecedentedly adverse business environment facing the newspaper industry -- and the related, negative perception of the industry's future prospects.'' The company announced the steps on the same day it posted a second-quarter net loss on a 15-percent drop in revenue. For the three months ended June 30, A.H. Belo posted a net loss of $3.19 million, or 16 cents a share, compared with a net profit of $12.3 million, or 60 cents a share, for the comparable period a year earlier. Second-quarter revenue fell 15.1 percent, to $163.25 million. A.H. Belo is among a number of media companies nationwide that are being affected by a drop in overall advertising revenue as many readers and advertisers migrate to the Internet. Just before mid-day today, A.H. Belo stock was trading at $6.09, down 31 cents a share. -- Journal staff writer Neil Downing 
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Wow, it must not be pleasant downtown these days, with all the young wannabes eyeing the old has-beens, wondering when they will call it quits so that their own positions will be secure.
And how does a newspaper publisher justify cutting marketing, even as it attempts to justify the benefits to its advertisers in a down economy? Gotta walk the walk.
Little local rags continue to pop up all over the place, bottom-feeders that erode the Big Time advertising base by courting small business and start-ups. But isn't that exactly how the Journal's weekend article about local ad men Don Creamer, Rob Trowbridge, and Jim Baar (see http://www.projo.com/business/johnkostrzewa/BZ_JK0727_07-27-08_67ATBS0_v75.411b496.html) said they created their fledgling communications companies?
A rising tide floats all boats, but if you're not paddling those oars when the tide recedes, there's a good chance you'll be beached. Maybe ProJo ought to be expanding its girth instead of reducing its width, before it winds up becoming the Downtown Providence Journal.
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i was born an raised in pawt.an prov.we return to ri twice every year an are just amazed at what level the journal has fallen too.to remember what the journal an bulletin used to be and see it now is just amazing.i say instead of lowering their standards any lower just turn off the lights an lock the doors and let us remember what the journal used to be.we are facing the same situation here in seattle with the times.smaller paper,ink blots,pages unreadable and nobody cares at the paper.its a terrible shame.
collins
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The Journal is dieing and the answer lies in the simple core fact that it does not serve it's market.
The market it thinks it serves is a multicultural mash-up (many of whom can't read, an odd target market for a newspaper) dreamed of by liberals and really only existing in their minds and a few select neigborhoods in Manhattan, already served by a dieing NY Times (check the stock price).
The market that the Providence Journal needs to serve are taxpayers (past, present and future) who work all their lives and have no public union or welfare state to provide for them. Of course; they have no newspaper that respects, serves and caters to them either.
Like every major urban center in the United States; these taxpayers have no Mayor, City Council, State Legislature or Congressional Delegation serving them either.
Of course the Journal's parent is cutting their marketing budget, they have nothing to sell and not a clue who they should be selling it to.
There may be a few editors and staff who, as individuals, understand these issues but they don't include the Editor, Publisher or the CFO of the parent company. Of course that holds true for the industry as a whole.
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