Tribune Publishing Offers Voluntary Buyouts To 9 Newspapers

Tribune Publishing is offering more voluntary buyouts to staffers.

The buyouts, announced Monday, target any staffer with eight-plus years of service, reported the Chicago Tribune.

Tribune Publishing owns nine newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, The Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel and The Hartford Courant.

Tim Knight, CEO and president of Tribune Publishing, wrote in an employee email: “Although our digital successes provide good momentum, we continue to face industry-wide revenue challenges, A significant amount of our revenue continues to come from our print titles and our commercial manufacturing and distribution business.

“Since we remain committed to extending the life of those products and services and to serving our home delivery subscribers, we need to anticipate continued print revenue declines by reducing our expenses.”

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Terms of the severance were not revealed.

Tribune Publishing reported revenue of $236 million in its third-quarter last year, down from $255.8 million in the year prior. Its digital side reported a 49.9% rise in revenue,and its digital-only subscribers increased 38%.

Hedge fund Alden Global Capital is the largest shareholder (32%) in the company.

“Alden Global Capital's reputation as a destroyer of local newspapers should alarm all citizens in every city with a Tribune Publishing newspaper,” Gregory Pratt, a Chicago Tribune reporter covering City Hall and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, told CNN Business.

Separately, in early December, Gannett started cutting jobs, following its merger with New Media Investment Group, parent of the GateHouse newspaper chain.

Editors at the Columbia Journalism Review track how many journalists are losing jobs. In late December, the 2019 total was over 3,100. Business Insider thinks the number is higher, at 7,800.

 

 

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