News company plans for 46 union layoffs

PHILADELPHIA MEDIA Network, parent company of the Inquirer, the Daily News and Philly.com, plans to lay off 46 members of Newspaper Guild Local 10 in December, 10.5 percent of the membership, the union said yesterday.

PMN confirmed that it had sent a memo to the guild saying that "approximately 46 members would be impacted" as part of a planned consolidation of the three newsrooms announced Friday by publisher and CEO Terrance Egger.

Additional cutbacks are expected among management and in areas outside the newsrooms, Egger said yesterday.

Egger has told employees that PMN needs to reorganize the newsrooms to gain efficiencies and save $5 million to $6 million companywide to be self-sustaining, with revenues exceeding expenses.

Details on which newsroom departments would be affected were not immediately available. Guild leaders said they expected to learn more tomorrow.

Keith Black, PMN's vice president of human resources, said in an email that the company planned to meet with guild officials at 1 p.m. tomorrow. He said the layoffs would occur on or after Dec. 4.

"No final decisions as to exactly which employees will be impacted can be made until after that meeting and after we have resolved any issues that may be raised by the guild," Black said.

The union's contract with PMN requires that layoffs go by seniority. There is a provision in the contract that allows managers to protect 25 percent of the newest employees whom they deem essential to the company's mission.

The Newspaper Guild, which has 436 members, represents newsroom employees as well as workers in advertising, circulation and finance.

Yesterday, Egger sent a three-page email to employees laying out his economic and strategic plan.

In response to a reporter's question, Egger said in a separate email that "management reductions will occur, but are not part of the 46."