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In a memo Monday, Globe publisher and New England Media Group President Christopher M. Mayer told employees the NEMG “took steps to reduce its work force. These involved primarily offers of voluntary buyouts but also some involuntary reductions throughout the New England Media Group.”
Dan Kennedy, who got the memo, says 10 people at the Globe were laid off, and that 43 employees — 20 in the newsroom — were offered buyouts. The reductions also affect the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, where, Kennedy writes, “one person was laid off while five to 10 have been offered buyouts.”
Beth Healy writes in The Globe that the layoffs Monday weren’t in the newsroom. And:
The company does not expect everyone to accept the buyouts, which were offered to both union and non-union employees. The company declined to say how much money it hopes to save with the job reductions. The Globe, which is owned by the New York Times Co., has a total of 1,881 employees.
At the Telegram & Gazette, too, layoffs will follow if the buyouts aren’t taken. Priyanka Dayal McCluskey writes the positions, not just the employees, will be eliminated there:
To be eligible for buyouts, employees must have worked at the T&G for at least 20 years. Employees who leave through buyouts will not be replaced.
The New York Times Company will announce its second-quarter earnings Thursday. In its first quarter report, the New England Media Group’s revenues were down 5.2 percent over the same period in 2011. Advertising and circulation revenues were down, while revenue from printing services was up 23 percent. In January, The Globe began printing the rival Boston Herald. In the Herald’s story about the reductions, Gary J. Remal and O’Ryan Johnson note that in May The Globe’s circulation fell “below the 200,000 mark for the first time in its history.”
In an email to Poynter, Globe Editor Martin Baron said that figure referred only to print circulation. Counting digital subscriptions, the Globe’s daily (Monday-Friday) circulation rose in March, according to the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations report, from 219,215 to 225,482; and Sunday rose from 356,653 to 365,512.
Correction: This post originally stated that advertising and circulation were down at The Globe; it should have said revenues from those enterprises were down.
Related: New York Times 1st quarter earnings beat expectations | Boston Globe raises prices on 7-day delivery, but protects Sunday circulation | Why a Boston Globe sale is improbable (but not impossible)
