Times Union Announces Layoffs

The Times Union, the largest regional newspaper for Albany, New York, announced it would lay off an as of yet undetermined number of employees.  Publisher George Hearst III said the layoffs were part of an effort to reduce the paper’s operating costs by 20 percent.

“We need to reduce our operating costs and we have costs in a lot of different areas—predominately people,” Hearst said. “It will affect both union and non-union workers alike.” He said cuts will be made across all apartments.
The Times Union layoffs follow layoffs at the region’s second largest daily, the Daily Gazette in Schenectady. The Times Union has 453 full-time employees.
In a memo to employees, Hearst explained that the company had tried to avoid layoffs.
“The Times Union management team has already undertaken many cost-cutting tactics, including a wage and hiring freeze, reduction in newsprint use, and expense containment,” he wrote. “Those steps, along with measured payroll cuts through attrition and a generous buyout program last year, have been implemented in an attempt to make significant job cuts unnecessary. Unfortunately, the steps we have taken to date have been insufficient in light of the continued deterioration of our revenues in recent months.”
In the memo, he wrote, “the very survival of our enterprise hinges upon cost-cutting that must include the departures of people who are part of this company.”
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