Belo Corp. Cutting 500

DALLAS, TX (January 30, 2009) – Blaming the “persistent” decline in advertising revenues in the newspaper industry and all media, and citing a “significant cost initiative” to preserve cash, A.H. Belo Corporation chief executive officer Robert Decherd today said that as many as 500 more jobs will be cut across the company.

Belo owns the Northwest television stations KING in Seattle Wash., KGW in Portland, Ore., Northwest Cable News, The Dallas Morning News and the Denton Record-Chronicle in Texas, the Providence Journal in Rhode Island, and The Press-Enterprise in California.

Decherd also said the company will make immediate moves to generate cash internally as well as take steps to preserve the cash Belo has on hand.

Some of these steps include suspending the Belo Savings Plan match for employees for 2009, preserving about $5.5 million in cash for the company annually, and reducing the amount the company reimburses employees monthly for wireless devices to $35, saving about $200,000 for the year.

Free parking is also gone for Dallas employees. Beginning May 1, Belo employees who park in company-owned lots will be charged $40, and those who park in the Belo Building’s lot will see their parking fees increase from $40 to $70 monthly.

In a bit of possible foreshadowing of what may yet come, Decherd told Belo employees in a memo today that while other newspapers have announced pay cuts and unpaid furloughs that he believes that “these actions are not best for A.H. Belo at this time” – and yet “we recognize that all means of preserving cash need to be explored.”

from nppa.org