The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News will slash 16 percent of their newsroom staffs through buyouts or layoffs this year, their publisher said yesterday.
The announcement by Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., a division of Knight Ridder Inc., came as the New York Times and the Boston Globe also announced job cuts, making it a dismal day of economic news for U.S. newspapers struggling in the Internet age.
"We are facing, I believe, a revolution in our industry. We are going to have to fight our way through the fear and anxiety," The Inquirer's editor, Amanda Bennett, told a solemn staff.
PNI publisher Joe Natoli described the cuts as a last resort for two newspapers confronting a steady drop in revenue and circulation as well as rising expenses.
He said PNI intended to reduce the number of unionized Inquirer newsroom employees by about 75, or 15 percent, to reach a level of 425 positions - roughly the staff level as in the early 1980s, according to officials of Local 10 of the Newspaper Guild.
The Daily News aims to cut its unionized staff by about 25, or 19 percent, to 105 positions. That would leave it at less than half the size at its peak in the early 1980s, according to former editor Zack Stalberg.
Nonunion managers may receive voluntary buyouts on a "case-by-case" basis, Natoli said.
The move focuses on editorial employees, who gather news and information. It excludes advertising, circulation, production and other employees; those departments have already faced cuts, Natoli said.
"It'll be like watching somebody bleed to death as people consider leaving," said David O'Reilly, 57, an Inquirer staff writer for 24 years.
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Since newsroom staff will cut back to what the papers had 25 or more years ago, it's like watching a dinosaur die. The horse-and-buggy folks didn't know they were dying out either till they couldn't drive on the road for all the Tin Lizzies in the way. I'll never forget the day that I came back to the BJ to watch 400 years of experience, including many long-time friends, leave on the same day. The worst day of my newspaper career.
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