Anchorage Daily News

NEW YORK -- The McClatchy newspaper company, owner of the Anchorage Daily News, announced its second major round of job cuts in three months Tuesday and blamed a sour advertising environment in trimming its payroll by 10 percent.

The McClatchy Co. said it expects half the 1,150 new reductions to come through voluntary buyouts and attrition and the rest through layoffs. The Daily News will lose about 25 positions, about half through attrition. McClatchy said the job cuts and other initiatives across the company would save $100 million over the next year, not including severance costs of about $20 million.

In June, McClatchy also announced a trim to its work force of about 10 percent, which meant the loss of 1,400 full-time jobs and savings of $70 million a year. Two months later, it announced a one-year pay freeze for remaining employees effective Sept. 1.

"It is painful to announce these staff reductions, but the continued restructuring of our company is necessary given the relentless economic downturn and its impact on our business," Gary Pruitt, McClatchy's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

He said the cuts should position McClatchy to grow as a digital company and to deliver "high-quality news and information in whatever medium our readers want to receive it."

The company said it would provide severance and continuation of benefits to affected employees.

Based in Sacramento, Calif., McClatchy is one of the nation's leading newspaper publishers. It has 30 daily papers, including the Bee and The Miami Herald, and about 50 nondaily newspapers.

Many newspaper companies have undertaken significant cuts this year. Earlier this month, Gannett Co. said it was cutting about 100 management jobs at its newspapers across the country, less than a month after the nation's largest newspaper publisher eliminated some 1,000 positions.

Like the rest of its industry, McClatchy has seen ad revenue plummet this year because of the weak economy and the continuing shift of audiences and advertisers to the Internet from newspapers.

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