The New York Times Co., the third-biggest U.S. newspaper publisher, and Knight Ridder Inc. said they will eliminate jobs to cut payroll costs after advertising sales declined.
The New York Times is cutting 500 jobs, or about 4 percent of its workforce, the New York-based company said Tuesday in a statement.
Knight Ridder, the No. 4 U.S. newspaper company, offered buyouts to 100 newsroom employees at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News, company spokesman Polk Laffoon said Tuesday.
The job cuts underscore the difficulties newspaper publishers are having as advertisers shift spending to other media, including cable television and the Internet. Advertising at the Philadelphia papers is down by “low single digits” this year, Laffoon said.
Times officials said that excluding sales from the About.com online venture, company revenue declined 1.2 percent in August.
“It’s getting tougher and tougher,” said Jane Elmes-Crahall, a communications professor at Wilkes University in Wilkes- Barre, Pa. “Print has to prove itself to come back. Underlying all of this is that consumer preference is moving away from print.”
The job cuts at The New York Times are the second round of staff reductions this year. In May, the company said it would eliminate about 200 jobs.
Third-quarter earnings will be 11 to 14 cents a share, Times officials said Tuesday. That includes expenses of $12 million to $14 million, or 4 to 6 cents a share, related to the cuts announced in May. More employees than anticipated chose to participate in that staff-reduction program.
Shares of San Jose, Calif.-based Knight Ridder fell 8 cents Tuesday to $60.10 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have declined 10 percent this year. New York Times shares rose 21 cents to $32.13 and have dropped 20 percent this year.
