Two California papers cut and combine staffs
By Erina Lin, Tuesday 4 March 2008 at 21:29 :: Labor & Employment :: #1354 :: rss
The Press-Telegram and Daily Breeze, two newspapers owned by MediaNews Group Inc., will cut staff and combine their Internet, copy editing and pagination operations due to sagging ad revenue, an editor said Monday.
The move involves nine job cuts at the Daily Breeze, located in Torrance, Calif., and about 10 at the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
In addition, Mark Ficarra, who became publisher of the Daily Breeze in January, will become publisher of the Press-Telegram. The current publisher positions will be eliminated.
"We are in an incredibly difficult market right now. These are really good people on both sides, at the Breeze and the P-T, but we are just going to have to make this work in a positive way," said Daily Breeze Editor Phillip Sanfield, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Under a reorganisation plan starting Thursday, a 24-person copy editing and pagination unit at the Daily Breeze will be formed to handle both papers. A five-person team will handle the Web sites of both papers.
The two papers will still be printed separately. The Daily Breeze has a circulation of 65,000, while The Press-Telegram's circulation is about 88,000, according to the the Los Angeles Times article, posted by MediaInfoCenter.
Photographers, editors and reporters will remain in their respective offices, Sanfield said. The two newspapers employ 111 editorial workers in total.
Denver-based MediaNews is a privately owned company that owns 57 daily U.S. newspapers, including the Los Angeles Daily News and several other Southern California and Bay Area papers.
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