Hearst may cut half of Chronicle newsroom
By: Greg Bensinger
Bloomberg News
March 6, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — Hearst Corp. may eliminate roughly half of the newsroom of its money-losing San Francisco Chronicle, lengthen the contractual work week and halt future pay increases, one of the newspaper’s unions said.
New York-based Hearst is considering selling or closing the newspaper after it lost more than $50 million last year, unless it can agree on cost savings with its unions. The publisher said it expects the Chronicle’s loss to widen this year as ad sales tumble.
The California Media Workers Guild said there would be at least 150 and as many as 225 job cuts, mostly from the newsroom, according to a posting on the union’s Web site. Hearst spokesman Paul Luthringer said the publisher doesn’t comment on internal negotiations.
Hearst may shutter its Seattle Post-Intelligencer if it can’t find a buyer and has cut jobs at other of its newspapers, including the San Antonio Express-News. E.W. Scripps Co. closed the Rocky Mountain News last month after it failed to find a buyer.
The Post-Intelligencer said yesterday on its Web site that Hearst may be planning to cease producing a printed version of the Seattle newspaper, which lost $14 million in 2008. Luthringer said Hearst was still seeking a buyer for the newspaper.
The Chronicle has posted operating losses in every year since 2001, Hearst said. It is the 12th-largest newspaper by circulation and the second-largest in California.
Hearst still must negotiate cost cuts with its Teamsters union.
