RICHMOND, Va. – Newspaper and broadcasting company Media General Inc. (NYSE: MEG), the parent of WJAR-NBC Channel 10 in Providence and 21 other TV stations, will pare its staff by as much as 11 percent by the end of the third quarter.

The cuts – announced yesterday in the company’s April revenue report – began earlier this year, Media General said. Most will come in its ailing publishing division, which includes 25 daily newspapers – in Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia – plus a number of other publications.

The company posted April revenue of $78.7 million, a 10.9-percent decline from the year-ago period. For the first quarter, it had posted a loss of $20.3 million – more than triple its 2007 first-quarter loss of $6.5 million. (READ MORE)

“The publishing division’s April results reflected the continued deep recession in Florida, which impacted all major advertising categories at our Tampa operations, particularly classified advertising,” Marshall N. Morton, Media General’s president and CEO, said in the after-market report. “The broadcast division in April generated $1.3 million in political revenues, partially offsetting a decline in national time sales,” which he attributed partly to a decline in automotive ads. “In the interactive media division, our recent acquisition of DealTaker.com was the primary driver of increased online revenues,” Morton said.

“Media General continues to implement its announced performance improvement initiatives … particularly within the publishing division,” he added.

“Our efforts to reduce operating costs have necessarily included personnel. We began our work force reductions in early 2007, in response to the deepening recession in Florida and the overall slowing of the U.S. economy.

“Compared to our peak 2007 employment at the start of the year,” Morton said, “by the beginning of the third quarter of this year we will have reduced the number of full-time equivalent positions from 6,900 to 6,150, or a total of 750.”

Staff reductions of about 745 full-time equivalents in the publishing division, 45 FTEs in the broadcast division – or about two full-time workers per station – and 20 from various corporate departments will be partly offset by a 60 FTE increase in the interactive media division as the company focuses on direct online sales and a “Web First” continuous news approach, the company said.

“This equates to annualized cost savings of $40 million, the full amount of which will be realized in 2009,” Morton said. “We expect to expense severance costs of $4 million to $4.5 million in the second quarter of 2008. In addition, we anticipate further improvement in profitability through reduced newsprint consumption and lower discretionary spending, as well as new revenue-development initiatives.”

Cranston-based Channel 10 will lose “up to seven positions,” Lisa Churchville, the station’s president and general manager, told Providence Business News in a telephone interview this afternoon.

The station “downsized by two non-union employees on Wednesday, and our full-time union employees have been offered buyout packages,” Churchville said. She declined to name the non-union staffers whose positions were cut.

The total number of positions trimmed will depend on how many workers opt to take the buyout, she said. “We don’t know how many it will be. The statement is, ‘a small number of unionized positions.’ It will not be more than five.”

Asked how much of the Channel 10 staff is union, versus non-union, she “78 percent of the work force is unionized. Most of the positions.” The sales and finance departments are non-union, as is station management, Churchville said. But union workers staff the station’s news, engineering and the assignment desk.

Were the cuts a surprise? “Yes and no,” Churchville told PBN. As the economy has slumped, “we’ve been seeing significantly lower sales to our advertisers. … Meanwhile, costs are going up,” especially for motor vehicle fuel.

“The employees are highly valued and have made a significant contribution to the station – and that, of course, makes it all the more difficult,” she said.

Media General Inc. (NYSE: MEG) is the owner of 22 network TV television stations – including WJAR-NBC Channel 10 in Providence – plus 25 daily newspapers and about 275 other publications, mostly in the Southeast. Additional information is available at www.mediageneral.com or www.TurnTo10.com.