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Friday, October 20, 2006 (SF Chronicle)
Mercury News plans to eliminate 101 jobs/Contra Costa Times says it also has plan to reduce expenses
Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer

Two major Bay Area daily newspapers that recently got a new owner are
making aggressive moves to slash costs.
The San Jose Mercury News plans to reduce its workforce by 101 positions,
or 8.5 percent, by Dec. 19 because of declines in revenue, the newspaper
said Friday. The projected staff cuts include 40 jobs in the newsroom, or
about 14 percent of the editorial staff of 280.
The Contra Costa Times, which has also experienced steep declines in
advertising revenue, plans to act quickly to lower operating costs,
according to a memo Thursday from its publisher. And in another memo on
Friday, the Times said that Editor Chris Lopez is leaving the paper
because his position has become "redundant." Executive Editor Kevin Keane
will take over Lopez's responsibilities.
The Mercury and the Contra Costa Times were acquired earlier this year by
MediaNews Group, a Denver publisher that already owns every major
newspaper in the Bay Area except The Chronicle, which is owned by New
York's Hearst Corp., and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, owned by the New
York Times Co. In a complex transaction, Hearst provided financial backing
for MediaNews' purchase of some other papers in exchange for an
unspecified stake in MediaNews properties outside the Bay Area. An
antitrust lawsuit challenging the Hearst-MediaNews arrangement is
scheduled to be heard in federal court in San Francisco in April.
"We're seeing consolidation, or clustering, as they call it," under
MediaNews ownership, said Luther Jackson, executive director of the San
Jose Newspaper Guild, which represents about 500 Mercury employees,
including newsroom, advertising, finance, circulation, marketing and
janitorial workers. Six years ago, the Mercury had 820 Guild positions, he
said.
"Our whole industry is going through a structural transformation as we all
migrate from printing news with ink on paper to a new business model that
will be the digital and electronic transmission of information," said
Susan Goldberg, executive editor of the Mercury. "Our revenue is growing
like crazy on the Internet, but it remains a small piece of the overall
revenue picture. Ads on the Internet are a lot cheaper than ads in print,
so the business model isn't supporting the newsgathering operation."
Newspapers nationwide are under mounting financial pressure as they
compete with the Internet and other media for readers and advertisers.
Earlier this month, Los Angeles Times Publisher Jeffrey Johnson was forced
to step down after he refused a demand by the paper's owner, the Tribune
Co., to reduce the newsroom staff.
At the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, formerly owned
by Knight Ridder Inc., which also used to own the San Jose and Contra
Costa papers, the new publisher told employees on Friday that layoffs are
"unavoidable" because advertising revenue is down, according to the
Associated Press.
Mercury Publisher George Riggs wrote to employees that any cost-savings
measures and upturns in income over the next two months could reduce the
number of positions to be eliminated.
The Mercury will select those to be laid off using criteria specified
under its union contract, including general competence, qualifications,
ability to do available work and length of service. The current union
contract expired June 30 but remains in force while a new one is
negotiated.
At the Contra Costa Times, Publisher John Armstrong wrote to employees
that real estate advertising has experienced a "sharp and rather sudden
decline" since the summer, and job ads and national ads have also
declined. The paper will present plans to cut costs and boost revenue to
its owners next week and will begin implementing them immediately after
winning approval, he wrote. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2006 SF Chronicle