Anchorage Daily News to slash 17% of staff.

All Employees
From: Patrick Doyle
Subject: Workforce and Wage Reductions
Date: Thursday, March 19, 2009
Last week, we told you that we were still developing our expense reduction plans and would finalize and communicate them to you as soon as possible.

Today, I want to share with you what those plans mean for the Anchorage Daily News. We are announcing plans to reduce our workforce by 47 positions. Although many of these job eliminations will occur through involuntary layoffs, there also will be opportunities for employees to voluntarily elect a severance package where reductions are occurring in work groups of two or more employees. If enough employees do not take the voluntary option, then the work groups will be reduced according to least tenure.

Reductions will occur in all areas of the operation. Employees affected by this reduction are being notified and provided with information about a transition package. We appreciate all that they have done for Anchorage Daily News and will do everything we can to make their transition as smooth as possible.

In addition, we are implementing wage reductions for all employees whose compensation exceeds $25,000 annually. Every employee will receive a letter detailing the impact of the wage reduction on their pay and will have the opportunity to ask questions. These wage reductions take effect on April 13, 2009.

These are difficult decisions, especially when it means saying goodbye to so many of our friends and colleagues. But we must make these additional cuts to ensure the viability of our newspaper and to adjust to these new competitive and economic realities.

There have been many questions about work furloughs. We are not planning furloughs for the first half of the year. However, we may revisit that option later in the year if financial conditions do not improve. We think it's important you know it's a possibility, and details will be provided if and when a decision has been made.

Again, I want to apologize for all of the disruption that you have experienced over the last several weeks. This is a very difficult time for all of us, and it will continue to be difficult as we all adapt to a new way of doing business. We can only respectfully ask, as we have in the past, that you keep your focus and continue to work hard to help our newspaper succeed.

Please contact Human Resources if you have any questions about the severance program or wage reductions.

Thanks. Patrick Doyle

Even after the recent kerfuffle between ADN and this site I am very, very sad to see this paper start its slow slide into obscurity.

As a boy I used to deliver the morning paper over in the Spenard area back when they still had houses of ill repute all in a row along the side of the road. I hated being a paperboy, and was happy to quit when I had finally had enough of deep snow in driveways and unchained dogs that chased me out of their yards and into the street. But when I was in my twenties I did not hesitate to get my subscription which I kept right up until just this past year.

I also remember when the paper wars were waged between ADN, the morning paper, and the Anchorage Times, which was the evening paper. When the dust settled I was very glad to see my favorite paper, the Anchorage Daily News, had survived.

It looks to me that the situation is terminal and I don't believe the paper will survive intact. There may be some chance it will go to an online only publication, or alter its format dramatically to meet the changing needs of the consumer, but whatever happens I think we are seeing the beginning of the end of the Anchorage Daily News as we know it.