Virginian-Pilot cuts 125 jobs, plans to reduce paper's size

NORFOLK

Plagued by advertising declines, The Virginian-Pilot is cutting at least 125 positions - or 10 percent of a 1,260-person work force - mostly through layoffs and shutting affiliated publications, publisher Maurice Jones said Friday.

Cost-cutting measures, triggered by the sputtering economy, will include:

- Shutting Link, a free daily newspaper geared to 18- to 34-year-olds.

- Reducing the size of the newspaper by at least 40 pages a week, or 8 percent.

- Eliminating the business section, including stock listings, every day but Sunday.

The Pilot newsroom will lose 15 employees, with a combined 297 years of service, editor Denis Finley said. Some, he said, wanted to leave the newspaper. In addition, two open positions will be dropped. That will put the newsroom staff at 193 - 22 percent smaller than its size of 248 in January 2007.

Most of the 15 are editors and managers, Finley said. "One of the goals," he said, "was to keep as many reporters on the street as possible."

Throughout the company, Jones said, those laid off include "members of my senior team, department heads and front-line workers."

"We're making these changes to keep this a healthy contributor to the marketplace in tough times," Jones said.

The Pilot will close Link at the end of the year "much to my sadness," but might maintain its Web site, he said.

The publication, begun in October 2006, had received positive reviews and met financial projections, which predicted it would turn profitable by 2010, he said. But "we, as a company, cannot afford to withstand those losses in the next couple of years in this climate."

The Pilot, Jones said, has not decided whether to continue Port Folio Weekly, an alternative weekly newspaper, or Mix, a multicultural monthly launched last year.

Most of the layoffs will occur by the end of the year, Jones said. About 45 so far are outside Hampton Roads. The Pilot will sell or close three military base newspapers - in Alabama, Georgia and Texas, Jones said.

The size of the newspaper will be reduced, and the weekday and Saturday business sections eliminated, in January, Finley said. Local business stories will appear in the front and Hampton Roads sections, he said, and the front section will include a "market page" Tuesday through Saturday. Stock listings will appear on The Pilot's Web site, Jones said.

"The paper will be a little smaller," Finley said. "I think readers will notice. We will keep the quality of the journalism as high as possible. There will just be less of it in the daily Pilot."

The Pilot, Jones said, will remain "the most thorough source of news, information and advertising in the marketplace." The newspaper's owner, Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, continues to negotiate a sale of the newspaper. A buyer is trying to get financing, Jones said. The potential sale, he said, did not influence the cost-saving measures. The Pilot also is expanding ways to generate revenue, Jones said. In October, it began printing front-page advertisements.

He said he expects the newspaper to raise prices again next year. In September, it increased the price of Sunday editions in boxes from $1.25 to $1.50.

Already struggling with Internet competition, newspapers nationwide have suffered further declines in advertising and circulation with the shriveling economy this year. Many have been cutting costs and laying off workers.

On Thursday, The Associated Press said it will cut 10 percent of its work force, or about 400 jobs, mostly by attrition. Earlier, E.W. Scripps Co. said it would lay off about 400 employees.

A recent report showed that The Pilot's average circulation for the six months that ended on Sept. 30 declined slightly less than the national average.

The weekday average fell to 174,573, down 3.4 percent from the previous year, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported. The Sunday average fell 4.3 percent, to 200,457. The declines nationally were 4.6 percent on weekdays and 4.8 percent on Sundays.

Recent readership trends provide hope, Jones said. Since September, the number of weekday and Sunday subscribers in South Hampton Roads has increased, circulation director Mark Quan said. Jones said The Pilot is profitable - though he declined to provide figures - partly because of its diverse holdings, which include Web sites, a direct marketing company and niche publications. The newspaper, he said, is not in danger of closing.

"We continue to try to do things to supply people information," Jones said. "We're not going to stop that. We also have to make sure we run this business as tight as we can in the next year to 18 months."

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com