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Faced with sharply declining revenues in the recession, The Charlotte Observer will cut its staff by 14.6 percent and reduce the pay of most remaining employees, the company announced Monday.
In addition to the 82 companywide layoffs 60 full-time and 22 part-time employees the Observer will reduce the hours of some employees.
The moves come after the Observer's parent company, Sacramento, Calif.-based McClatchy Co.,, said this month it would slash 1,600 jobs and reduce salaries to lower operating expenses.
Advertising makes up more than 80 percent of McClatchy's net revenues but dropped nearly 18 percent to less than $1.6 billion last year, according to the company's 2008 annual report. McClatchy also is struggling to pay down debt following its $4.6 billion purchase of rival Knight Ridder in 2006.
The Observer announcement is the fourth round of staff cuts in the past year. The company's workforce had shrunk to about 675 full-time workers before the latest cuts.
Sixteen full-time newsroom staffers and 11 part-time employees are part of the layoffs, Observer Editor Rick Thames said. Fourteen full-time newsroom employees will have reduced hours, said Cheryl Carpenter, managing editor.
Among remaining employees, pay for those earning at least $25,000 a year will be reduced, said publisher Ann Caulkins, and top earners get more of a pay cut.
The Observer already has shed costs by merging some business and news-gathering functions with other McClatchy newspapers, including The (Raleigh) News & Observer and The (Rock Hill, S.C.) Herald both of which also announced layoffs recently.
The changes come as the Observer reaches more readers than ever, thanks to the Internet. Yet the newspaper, like others across the country, hasn't been able to generate comparable revenue from its online product.
Caulkins and Thames said the Observer won't stop publishing newspapers on certain days of the week or make the Observer available only online.
The print product is not going to go away anytime soon, Caulkins said, adding that McClatchy executives feel the same way.
