The McClatchy Company will cut roughly 3.5 percent of its staff, amounting to nearly 140 employees in a company-wide shakeup, it revealed Tuesday.
McClatchy publishes dozens of newspapers across the country, including The Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Idaho Statesman, The Fresno Bee and The Charlotte Observer. A spokesperson for the company declined to issue a statement, noting only that it was “a tough day.”
McClatchy president and CEO Craig Forman revealed the news to employees in an internal memo, a copy of which was obtained by TheWrap.
“While these actions are necessary to protect and further our future, they are painful and difficult decisions. Talented and passionate people who have dedicated their energy to our mission, colleagues we call friends and rely on everyday, will leave the company.” he wrote. “We thank you all for your commitment to McClatchy and to local journalism and wish you nothing but the best in your future endeavors.”
Forman said that even though the company’s revenue remained “better than its peers,” the cuts were necessary in order to combat strong “industry headwinds.”
“This is not an unusual path in an ambitious transformation — the road is often filled with ups and down, and it’s seldom a straight line up,” he wrote. “While our digital revenue continues to grow, we still face significant print advertising revenue declines, and the recent newsprint tariffs don’t help.”
The McClatchy cuts are the latest in a string that legacy media operators have been forced to take in recent years.
Earlier this month, fellow publisher Tronc laid off dozens of staff from the New York Daily News over similar concerns. Employee upheavals also plagued the Los Angeles Times under Tronc before it was sold to billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong. Under the hedgefund-backed Digital First Media, the Denver Post newsroom has shrunk to less than 100 employees from around 250 several years ago.
9 Times New York Times Editorial Made Everyone Freak Out
Bari Weiss: We're All Fascists Now
The New York Times opinion editor set the Internet ablaze after going after college students who she said were trying to shut down free speech. Critics pointed to Weiss mistakenly linking two fake ANTIFA Twitter accounts
MSNBC
David Brooks: 'Girl I Want Your Body'
New York Times Op-Ed columnist David Brooks offered his spin on the MeToo movement in November. But his attempt to speak the language of sex and passion led him to write some lines like "girl I want your body" and "sex is a gold nugget" and the Internet went nuts.
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Bret Stephens' "A Defense, of Sorts, for Harvey Weinstein"
The October, 2017 piece was actually titled "Weinstein and Our Culture of Enablers," but Stephens couldn't resist throwing in the trollish alternative headline see above into a tweeted description of the article -- which promptly precipitated an Internet meltdown
YouTube
David Brooks Urges "Respect to Gun Owners" After Parkland, Florida Massacre
David Brooks set passions aflame after urging "respect" for gun owners after 17 children were killed at a school shooting in Parkland, Florida. "So if you want to stop school shootings it's not enough just to vent and march. It's necessary to let people from Red America lead the way, and to show respect to gun owners at all points," he wrote.
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Quinn "Been Friends with Various Neo-Nazis" Norton
The New York Times got more than they bargained for when they hired tech writer Quinn Norton. Almost immediately after the news was announced old tweets began to emerge including where Norton said she had "been friends with various neo-nazis" and used the N word. The Times cut her loose just hours after she was hired.
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Bari Weiss Attacks Aziz Ansari Accuser: 'I'll Get Crushed for This'
Weiss risked more wrath on the set of "Morning Joe" in January after blasting a woman who accused comedian Aziz Ansari of sexual misconduct. "It's called bad sex," she told Joe and Mika. "I'll get crushed for saying this."
TheWrap
Bari Weiss Quotes Hamilton: 'Immigrants: We Get the Job Done"
Anti-Weiss Internet mobs were set ablaze after she tweeted out "Immigrants: we get the job done," in response to Olympian Mirai Nagasu's triple axel. Nagasu was born in California to immigrant parents and Twitter furiously dragged her for not paying sufficient deference to the decision.
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James Bennet Diversifies the Times Opinion Pages
Editorial Page Editor James Bennet has said his mission is to broaden editorial diversity on the Times newsroom. The initiative has often been rocky and the paper has been beset by online criticism of hiring choices, and targeted leaks by Times employees unhappy with his changes.
YouTube
David Brooks Sandwich-Shames Less Educated Friend
Perhaps most egregious of all in the mind of Internet warriors was Brooks' confession in a July, 2017 column that he once took a friend "with only a high school degree" into a gourmet sandwich shop but decided to pull a quick switch for Mexican food after, so he said, she appeared overwhelmed by words like Soppressata and Capicollo.
Creative Commons
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Most of the recent fire and fury comes from the paper’s editorial pages
Bari Weiss: We're All Fascists Now
The New York Times opinion editor set the Internet ablaze after going after college students who she said were trying to shut down free speech. Critics pointed to Weiss mistakenly linking two fake ANTIFA Twitter accounts