Media General to cut jobs at Tampa Tribune, WFLA
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Media General Inc. (MEG.N) said on Tuesday it will lay off about 70 employees at the Tampa Tribune, its largest newspaper, as it cuts costs and focuses on additional local coverage to keep readers.
The publisher and broadcaster also decided not to fill some positions at the paper, and will cut 15 jobs at local Florida television station WFLA, said spokesman Ray Kozakewicz.
The Tribune employs about 1,335 employees. No additional job cuts are planned for other Media General properties, which include the Richmond Times Dispatch and the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina, Kozakewicz said.
"Our newspaper is experiencing the challenges of changing reader needs and fundamental shifts in spending by our traditional advertisers," Tribune publisher Denise Palmer said. "We are reducing resources in areas that are in decline and investing in areas of growth, including local news and the Internet."
The Tribune will also shrink its page width by half an inch, combine several sections in its Friday and Sunday editions to lower costs and stop distributing the paper in Citrus, Manatee and Hardee counties. It plans to launch Web sites designed for local communities.
"Hyper-local" news is a term gaining popularity among newspaper publishers who are worried about their future growth as circulation shrinks and advertising sales sputter. Palmer said Tribune research supports the idea that readers want such highly specific information about cities and towns.
The paper's average weekday paid circulation fell 3.6 percent in the second half of 2006 versus the same period last year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Publishers such as USA Today owner Gannett Co. Inc. (GCI.N) are emphasizing more in-depth local coverage at their 89 local papers, while companies such as GateHouse Media Inc. GHS.N are impressing analysts with their spread of mostly small papers that cover similarly-sized towns.
Media General has a mix of larger dailies, but also serves smaller communities such as Manassas, Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and Opelika, Alabama.
Its shares rose 23 cents, or less than 1 percent, to $38.76 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
