AP staff to shrink 10 percent

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Associated Press will trim 10 percent of its work force over the next year as a cut in fees paid by member newspapers and a declining economy take their toll, Chief Executive Tom Curley said Thursday.

The staff reduction will amount to a loss of more than 400 positions from a global staff of 4,100, and Curley said the cuts will include some of the news cooperative's 3,000 journalists.

Curley told the staff in a meeting webcast to AP offices globally that he hopes most of the cut will be achieved through attrition, but he did not rule out layoffs.

Asked if the cuts would include newsroom jobs, Curley noted that 75 percent of the staff are journalists. "Everybody's going to participate," he said.

The AP is still profitable, but cash flow is expected to decline from $95 million this year to $66 million in 2009, largely due to a $30 million reduction in fees paid by newspapers facing unprecedented financial hardships.

The remainder of the AP's cash will be spent funding the pension plan, taxes and capital equipment, and the staff cuts are meant to prepare for a possible further economic decline, Curley said. The staff reduction is intended to save $25 million a year.

The news organization also announced the location of two regional editing centers: One in Phoenix will cover the Western United States, and one in Chicago will cover in the Midwest. The first such hub launched this year in Atlanta will cover the south. Another, based in Philadelphia to cover the Eastern United States, is in the works.

The cooperative intends to shift 91 editor positions from its New York headquarters and U.S. state bureaus to the new centers through 2009.