Three days after the investment firm Platinum Equity acquired The San Diego Union-Tribune from its owner, the Copley Press Inc., the U-T administered a round of layoffs across all departments on May 7. As a result, 192 positions will be eliminated effective July 6.
“These are tough times for the entire newspaper industry, and a time of transition for the Union-Tribune,” said Drew Schlosberg, the company’s director of community and public relations. “Any decision to reduce staff is difficult.”
From the Union-Tribune’s article:
The company, which has had several rounds of buyouts and layoffs in recent years, will have about about 850 employees once the staff cuts become effective.
The Union-Tribune, like other large newspapers, has been hit by both declining print circulation as well as a decrease in advertising that has been accelerated by the recession.
Schlosberg said the paper has a late-week circulation (Thursday-Saturday) of just over 300,000 a day, with the daily paper estimated to reach more than 662,000 readers. Its Sunday circulation is 330,000, with a readership believed to be more than 890,000. The Union-Tribune’s Web site, SignOnSanDiego, draws more than 3 million unique users each month.
The Union-Tribune won its fourth Pulitzer Prize this year, awarded to editorial cartoonist Steve Breen; and won the top award for general excellence for a large newspaper from the California Newspaper Publishers Association last year.
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