The Pew Research Center released some sobering data this week. Around one-quarter of newspapers with an average Sunday circulation of 50,000 or more experienced layoffs in 2018.
The hardest-hit group of newspapers were in the mid-market range, with an average Sunday circulation between 100,000 and 249,999.
According to the analysis, a smaller share of newspapers had layoffs this year than last, with 32% of those papers taking a hit in 2017 and 27% in 2018. However, many of those large papers, 31%, had more than one round of layoffs last year.
Of the 31% that experienced layoffs in 2017, 9% of those papers had layoffs again in 2018.
Among the newspapers studied for the analysis, 62% laid off more than 10 people in 2018, up from the 42% that did in 2017, signaling that while layoffs were slightly down, the damage wrought by them went up.
Source: Media Post
TAPPI
http://www.tappi.org/