The St. Louis Post-Dispatch today announced it was laying off 39 employees:
The layoffs include 14 in the newsroom. The other departments affected are operations, advertising and finance.
“While print and online audience remains strong and stable, we continue to feel the financial challenges from a decline in advertising revenue caused by the recession,” said Publisher Kevin Mowbray.
“Today’s workforce reduction is necessary and difficult for everyone, but we will continue to produce and deliver the most comprehensive news coverage to 1.2 million readers each week,” Mowbray said.
Iowa-based Lee Enterprises, which owns the Post-Dispatch and 48 other daily newspapers across the country, has been losing money and cutting jobs for over a year. The St. Louis Business Journal recently reported the company’s stock had dropped so low that it received a notice from the New York Stock Exchange that its stock had fallen below the exchange’s continued listing standard price and was nearing non-compliance with the NYSE’s market capitalization standard.
Wall Street appreciated Lee’s cuts today. The company’s stock rose almost 44%!
January 9th, 2009 at 10:03 AM
I want to know who the 14 are. Are they recognizable byline names?
January 9th, 2009 at 12:02 PM
I don’t think enough people will pay for a newspaper when the content is readily available for free over the internet. People can denigrate Lee all they want, but has anyone checked out the trajectory of the stock of the New York Times. They aren’t making it either and they are a very good paper.
PubDef is really good at what it does, but if you want real in-depth reporting (P-D offered it infrequently), it has to be paid for, and we, as an economy, are deciding whether we want to do that.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:23 PM
It’s a shame that stock values rise as companies cut jobs. Who can even afford to own stock today except for an elite minority? Those people are throwing away our country for short-term gain, and the pigeons are coming home to roost. Sadly, the working class is hardest hit by the sins of the rich assholes who’d lay off their own mothers to get a better return on their “investments.”
January 9th, 2009 at 9:05 PM
To be fair, when you only have to go up about 20 cents to increase 44%, that ain’t saying much. At least a share of stock is more than a copy of the paper now.
These people are paying the price for the bad judgment of those who overpaid Pulitzer for the Post. They have so much debt to service, one wonders when the next round will occur?
I have to disagree with Jackson. If there ever was a time when the common man could own stock it is now. A share of Lee is about a half a dollar. I will leave it to you to decide whether that is a good price.
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:31 AM
The guy who posted the first blog coverage of Obama’s campaign visit should be the very first to be let go.
His coverage was the absolute worst imaginable and i think whoever his supervisor or mgr. is should also be let go.
Don’t believe it?
Then go there and look
There’s no excuse in the world for anyone to display such levels of arogance