Kansas City Star to cut 120 jobs

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The Kansas City Star said Monday that it plans to cut 120 jobs as its parent company, McClatchy Co., reduces its work force by 10 percent as it struggles to attract advertising dollars.

The Star is the newspaper chain's third-largest paper with daily circulation of 252,957.

"This is a painful but necessary step," Mark Zieman, The Star's publisher, said in a statement. "These cuts are part of the way we must respond as we strategically realign our company for success in this digital age."

Zieman said the cuts would come in all divisions of the paper, as well as its network of community newspapers and magazines, and would occur through a combination of voluntary and involuntary layoffs.

Zieman added that The Star is also reducing its daily circulation by about 5,000 as it contracts the size of its newspaper delivery area.

He added that he didn't believe the cuts would affect the paper's news coverage.

"Today's realignment will help keep The Star strong and vital for the future," he said.

Besides The Star, the company also publishes the Olathe News, the Lee's Summit Journal, the Belton Star Herald and the Cass County Democrat, as well as a number of Kansas City lifestyle magazines and a free weekly targeting younger readers.

Overall, McClatchy said the 10 percent cut will save $70 million a year, part of a plan to reduce total expenses by $95 million to $100 million over the next four quarters.

"The effects of the current national economic downturn -- particularly in real estate, auto and employment advertising -- make it essential that we move faster now to realign our work force and make our operations more efficient," said McClatchy Chief Executive Gary Pruitt, in a statement.

McClatchy said in April that it swung to a loss in the first quarter as a weakening economy and competition from online rivals led to a 15 percent plunge in advertising revenues at its newspapers.

On Monday, the company said May revenue fell 15.1 percent year-over-year, and ad sales were down 16.6 percent. Declines in print advertising were partially offset by a 12.9 percent gain in online advertising revenue last month.