Cleveland paper cuts news staff by third
Plain Dealer in Cleveland cuts about one-third of newsroom staff, plans 3-day-a-week delivery
7/31/2013CLEVELAND — The Plain Dealer newspaper in Cleveland cut about a third of its newsroom staff Wednesday, months after announcing it was reducing home delivery of the newspaper.
About 50 reporters, photographers, page designers, and other Newspaper Guild-covered employees received layoff notices, according to the guild.
“In order to realign our workforce for future growth, we have found it necessary to make additional reductions,” Publisher Terry Egger said in a news release.
Guild chairman Harlan Spector said those let go included veteran reporters and photographers who had become familiar names to the paper’s readers.
The Plain Dealer, beginning next week, will reduce home delivery to three days a week while providing a “bonus” home-delivered edition on Saturdays.
The newspaper, which announced the changes to home delivery in April, will be printed every day and be available for purchase at outlets in northeast Ohio.
“We chart a new course to ensure that we are positioned to be a viable business in an effort to better meet the needs of our community,” Mr. Egger said.
A new digitally focused media company called Northeast Ohio Media Group will also start this summer. The organization will be responsible for all ad sales and marketing for The Plain Dealer and oversee the operation of the Cleveland.com Web site and Sun News, a chain of weekly newspapers.
The newspaper, which has a weekday circulation of about 286,400, is owned by Advance Publications Inc. of New York. Other Advance papers, such as the Times-Picayune in New Orleans and The Birmingham News in Alabama, have cut back their publishing schedules to three days a week.