The Miami Herald is shuttering its printing plant and cutting 70 jobs. TheWrap has reviewed an internal memo from Miami Herald Media Company president and publisher Aminda Marqués González announcing the changes.
The news comes just weeks after McClatchy — which owns the Herald and its Spanish-language counterpart, El Nuevo Herald — announced it was doing away with Saturday editions of the paper. Instead, it said “weekend” editions would be extended.
The print versions of the paper won’t come from the newspaper’s eight-year-old printing plant. Instead, the Herald is cutting 70 jobs and will print six days worth of newspapers at the Sun Sentinal’s press in Deerfield Beach.
In her letter to staff, Marqués González wrote, “Our colleagues affected by this move will receive severance packages and the Sun Sentinel has informed us that they will potentially hire up to 18 of our team members to support the increased work they will manage. As part of this change, we will be saying goodbye to 34 full-time and 36 part-time employees. We are sharing this news with you at this time now that all of our impacted colleagues have been informed.”
She added, “This was a very difficult business decision reached after thoughtful analysis and deliberation. As you know, as more readers find their news online, demand for print is declining and publishers, including our sister publications across McClatchy, are consolidating their print operations.”
In reporting its third quarter results in Nov. 2019, McClatchy said it is “negotiating capital and pension restructuring with PBGC and key stakeholders.”