Seattle Times to Cut 23 Newsroom Jobs in the New Year

Last Friday The Seattle Times’ executive editor Don Shelton emailed newsroom employees with the news that 23 jobs would be cut. Voluntary buyouts have

Subscription News: The Seattle Times to Cut 23 Newsroom Jobs in the New Year

Source: The Seattle Times

Last Friday The Seattle Times‘ executive editor Don Shelton emailed newsroom employees with the news that 23 jobs would be cut. Voluntary buyouts have been offered, but if not enough people take the buyouts, layoffs may be needed. Affected positions could include reporters, desk editors, page designers and others. The Times said it has seen growth in digital subscriptions, but not enough “to offset structural advertising losses.”

So far, five nonunion employees have accepted the buyout offer. Union employees have until January 20 to make their decision. In addition to these changes, two people have chosen to leave The Times voluntarily, and two others have accepted jobs at the paper outside the newsroom.

Subscription News: The Seattle Times to Cut 23 Newsroom Jobs in the New Year

Source: The Seattle Times

“This is a very difficult period for people,” Shelton said. “There are some really good people who are not going to be with us as we downsize.”

This news follows an email Shelton sent earlier in the week that outlined sweeping changes to the newspaper which included posting content earlier and more frequently, fewer layers of editing and changes in subject matter to be covered. According to The Times’ own story on the changes, the newspaper would continue to publish seven days a week, and would still do investigative, watchdog and long-form features, but it would also add shorter and more frequent posts as well as stories aggregated from outside sources.

Shelton is relatively new to the role of executive editor. He has been a journalist for 40 years and was a sports editor for The Seattle Times when publisher Frank Blethen tapped Shelton for the newspaper’s top spot in June 2016.

It is likely that Times’ staffers were not surprised by the staff cuts or changes. In December, executive vice president and CFO Alan Fisco announced major changes in a memo to staff, republished by The Stranger:

“As we all know, the newspaper/digital journalism and advertising business model continues to transform to the future. While The Seattle Times has made excellent progress, we are forced to join the rest of the industry in adjusting to ever-lower advertising revenue. Industry advertising trends worsened in the second half of the year nationally. This trend is anticipated to continue for 2017…,” wrote Fisco.

“As we are finalizing the 2017 budget, we need to realign expenses to our advertising revenue realities. We know this is going to require difficult expense cuts, including staff reductions. These actions, along with other operational changes, will allow us to continue our business model transformation journey and our mission of independent journalism and public service,” Fisco continued.

Fisco outlined severance benefits in that memo, stating that the last day for most affected employees would be February 3, 2017. Shelton followed Fisco’s December 7 email with one of his own in which he said the impact of the cuts would be significant in the new year.

“This will be a different newsroom next year, and every one of our jobs will change as we reduce staff and move ahead with changing our culture to become more digital, more nimble and more reader focused. And we must do that while protecting The Seattle Times’ brand and commitment to quality journalism and community service,” Shelton said in the memo republished by The Stranger.

The largest newspaper in the state of Washington, the Pulitzer-prize winning Seattle Times was founded in 1896. Frank Blethen serves as the paper’s publisher and CEO. His is the fourth generation of the Blethen family to have a hand in The Seattle Times.

The Seattle Times is only the latest in a long line of legacy newspapers impacted by falling print revenue, including Reuters, New York Daily News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The only newspaper, it seems, that isn’t laying people off but is actually growing is the Washington Post. In fact, in December, Washington Post’s publisher Fred Ryan sent a memo to staff outlining the great year the company had in 2016 and promising to add staff in 2017.

Insider Take:

Most legacy newspapers are struggling right now as print ad revenue continues to decline. Companies like the Washington Post are successful because they have access to capital, but also because they’ve adapted quickly and have had the opportunity to experiment with new products and business models. This has made the transition to digital much smoother than what other legacy publishers are experiencing.

Sadly, we expect things to continue to get worse before they get better. Big change and transformation is necessary for companies like The Seattle Times to stay afloat. Incremental changes have not worked thus far and will continue to fail until news organizations accept the new digital news paradigm and exhibit a willingness to experiment and start over, if necessary.

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