PD to trim 8% of workers to reduce costs

The Press Democrat on Wednesday announced it will eliminate 35 jobs, or 8 percent of its work force, in an effort bring its costs in line with falling revenue.

In a series of meetings with employees, Publisher Bruce Kyse said he hopes the newspaper's staff-reduction goals can be met through voluntary buyout offers. If they cannot, however, layoffs in several departments -- including the newsroom -- will follow.

Kyse, who took over as publisher in 2006, said the move was painful but necessary given the newspaper's financial challenges.

"I hope you understand that this is not a meeting that I ever wanted to hold or a message that I ever wanted to deliver," Kyse told the newsroom staff Wednesday.

A sluggish local economy and competition for classified advertising from free Web sites such as Craigslist are largely responsible for the revenue decline, Kyse said.

Meanwhile, circulation at The Press Democrat and other U.S. newspapers is dropping as core readers move online and purchase the paper less frequently, while younger readers turn to alternative news sources. At The Press Democrat, daily circulation fell 3.4 percent last year, to 82,683 copies.

Kyse declined to provide more detail, but according to estimates in the newspaper's annual Outlook section, the paper's revenue dropped from $74 million in 2005 to $70 million last year.

Newspapers across the country have been cutting staff in response to wrenching changes in their business models. In May, the San Francisco Chronicle announced plans to cut 25 percent of its newsroom staff, and the San Jose Mercury News followed in June with plans for a 17 percent reduction.

The Press Democrat, which employs an estimated 447 workers in Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park, has been owned by the New York Times Co. since 1985. The paper endured a similar cutback in 1995, when it trimmed 8 percent of its work force. At the time, Publisher Mike Parman cited the high cost of paper and the local economy's slow recovery from the 1990 recession. In response, the paper scaled back its coverage of outlying areas, closing its Fort Bragg bureau.

It is too soon to say how the current cuts will affect the newspaper's ability to cover its communities, Kyse said.

The newspaper is aggressively working to increase revenue by strengthening its Web site and offering a broader range of print products, including magazines such as Savor, and special sections such as Green Living.

The company has recently worked hard to reduce non-employee costs, such as finding ways to operate the printing presses more efficiently and by streamlining how advertisements are produced, Kyse said. But the savings were not enough to avoid work-force reductions, he said.

A total of seven of 93 newsroom positions -- or 8 percent -- are expected to be eliminated through the process, Kyse said. All eligible newsroom employees, including both union members and managers, received buyout proposals Wednesday.

The deal offers a lump-sum payment equal to two weeks' salary for every year of service, maxing out at half a year's salary. It does not include health benefits beyond what the law requires. Employees have up to 45 days to decide whether to accept the offer.

Employees in the Web and advertising sales departments are exempt from the cutbacks, as are pressmen who work at the plant in Rohnert Park and some circulation managers, Kyse said.

Kyse said he hopes all the cuts can be achieved through buyouts.

However they are achieved, cuts in newsroom jobs represent a "triple hit" to the organization because the newsroom generates stories and content that run in the newspaper, on the Web site and in special publications, Kyse said.

"I'm not going to put a shine on this. This does not make us better," Kyse told the newsroom. "You do quality work and it shows every day, and I know it will be harder now to do that."

Many members of the newsroom were "shocked" by the move because the paper has already endured significant staff reductions in recent years, largely by not replacing workers who leave, said Bleys Rose, chairman of the Santa Rosa unit of the Media Workers Guild.

"Still, it is just plain sad that buyout offers and threats of layoffs are forcing some very dedicated journalists out of the profession," Rose said. "There just might be enough departing employees to salvage the newspaper's bottom line. But that's a lot of experience walking out the door that won't be replaced."

Kyse said all newspapers are struggling to adapt to a world where people have more ways to access information than ever. These include 24-hour cable TV news stations, communicating with friends on MySpace, or getting e-mail alerts on subjects that interest them. The Press Democrat is working hard to expand its Web site with new features, such as blogs, photo galleries and breaking news, he said.

While the Internet represents a challenge to the way newspapers have operated for years, it also presents new opportunities to expand their audiences, target advertising and deliver local news more quickly.

"We used to be the ones who reported in-depth every 24 hours on events in the community," Kyse said. "Breaking news was not our thing. It never was. We gave that up to radio and television years ago. It's back. It's ours. We can own that."

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com.