‘Wall Street Journal’ Layoffs: Job Cuts Announced As Part Of Plan To Save Newspaper
The Wall Street Journal began laying off staff on Wednesday in a bold effort to cut costs and keep the publication financially stable “for the foreseeable future.” The newspaper, owned by Dow Jones, plans to revamp their format with fewer sections starting November 14.
According to an internal memo sent out by Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerald Baker, changes being made in addition to the layoffs include a consolidation and reduction of some sections of the paper. There will be much less coverage of arts, culture, and local news in the new edition.
Additionally, the WSJ Greater New York section will be cut down to two pages and be consolidated into the main newspaper. The smaller, more concise section means several people, including 12 reporters, lost their jobs yesterday.
“All newspapers face structural challenges and we must move to create a print edition that can stand on a sound financial footing for the foreseeable future while our digital horizons continue to expand,” Baker wrote in the memo. “As I previously mentioned, there will unfortunately need to be an elimination of some positions as part of this process.”
Other segments of the Wall Street Journal are going through changes. Both the Business & Tech and the Money & Investing sections will be combined into one and renamed Business & Finance. Also combining are the Personal Journal and Arena sections into a segment called Life & Arts.
The Wall Street Journal will continue to publish its Saturday edition without changes. The Journal Reports and Mansion sections will also remain unaffected.
“The new paper will maintain and strengthen our core news coverage — the finest reporting on business, finance and economics — but in a sharper, more concise, more coherent and more easily navigable form,” Baker wrote in the memo. “We are uniquely fortunate to have the most ambitious, successful, financially and economically literate readership of any news business anywhere in the world. They are busy people, hungry for the kind of quality reporting and analysis only we can provide. We need to ensure that they get the news they want and need in as concise a daily print form as possible.”
The Wall Street Journal layoffs come just a few weeks after announcing a three-year plan to reduce costs due to a steep decline in print advertising sales. Financial analysts expect the WSJ’s ad revenue to be down over 12 percent for the most recent quarter.
Overall, print advertising is down industrywide, and many newspapers could end up closing their doors. The New York Times is experiencing similar ad revenue losses, announcing an 18.5 percent decline in the third quarter. During the same period, Gannett was down 15 percent and Postmedia was down 21 percent.
Two major factors are contributing to the deterioration of print advertising sales. The first one is declining subscription rates. Most people younger than 36 do not subscribe to newspapers, and many publications must rely on older readers to view print advertising. However, as these people die off, new subscribers do not replace them.
The second driving force is a competitive ad market. Twenty years ago, it was easy for a major newspaper to charge premium rates for advertising, and it was the most effective avenue a business could use to reach its target audience. However, online and other alternative advertising sources, which are generally less costly and able to reach a more targeted consumer, are quickly chipping away at the profits of print advertising.
Most newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, predicted this to happen and have since made a successful transition to the internet. Essentially, all major publications have created a practical digital business model that has generated revenue in the post-print world.
Despite falling print ad revenue sales and recent layoffs, the Wall Street Journal has gained ground online in recent years. The publication has effectively persuaded hundreds of thousands of people to pay for a subscription to their news website. Of the total subscribers to the WSJ, 45 percent of them are online only.
Since the paper’s upper management predicted the upcoming layoffs, the Wall Street Journal asked its 1,500 employees to take voluntary buyouts earlier this month. Company representatives have not released just how many employees took the buyout or how many layoffs will eventually occur.
[Featured Image by Chris Hondros/Getty Images]
