Kansas City Star to cut more jobs

McClatchy chief Pruitt declines bonus

The Kansas City Star will cut more jobs as part of a restructuring plan its parent company announced Thursday.

The McClatchy Co. plans to cut an additional $100 million to $110 million in costs in the next year, starting later in the first quarter.

McClatchy, based in Sacramento, said in a release that it hasn’t finalized details of the plan, and the company didn’t say whether layoffs are part of the plan. But The Star reported on its Web site Thursday that it will cut more jobs, though it didn’t say how many.

A spokeswoman at the paper couldn’t be reached for comment.

The Star , one of McClatchy’s 30 daily newspapers, has laid off a number of employees in the past year, including 10 in accounting, announced in November and about 120 announced in June as part of McClatchy’s cut of roughly 1,400 full-time-equivalent jobs nationwide, or about 10 percent of its employees.

Also on Thursday, McClatchy reported that it lost $21.7 million, or 26 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, which ended Dec. 28. This compares with a loss of $1.4 billion, or $17.46 a share, a year earlier.

Revenue for the quarter was $470.9 million, down 18 percent from $573.4 million the prior year.

For all of 2008, the company reported earnings of $1.35 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with a loss of $2.7 billion, or $33.37 a share, for 2007. Revenue for the year was $1.9 billion, down 16 percent from $2.26 billion in 2007.

In Thursday’s release, McClatchy said it will extend a salary freeze for senior executives in 2009 that it had implemented in 2007. The company earlier had frozen salaries companywide from September 2008 through September of this year. Chairman and CEO Gary Pruitt has declined any bonus for 2008 and 2009.

McClatchy previously said it would suspend its quarterly dividend after paying a first-quarter dividend of 9 cents a share, declared on Jan. 27.

The company released the news in its fourth-quarter and full-year financial report.

McClatchy is the third-largest newspaper company in the United States, with 30 daily newspapers, about 50 nondailies, and direct-marketing and direct-mail operations.
[Source: Kansas City Business Journal]