NJ papers must make big cuts to stay afloat

The New York Times' Richard Perez-Pena reports that The Star-Ledger of Newark and a smaller sister paper in Trenton need to eliminate at least 20 percent of their staffs and win concessions from trade unions to stay afloat, their management said on Thursday, or their owner will sell the papers and possibly close the smaller one.
The Star-Ledger’s publisher sent a note to its staff saying the paper must have 200 nonunion workers take buyouts. The paper has about 1,000 employees, about three-quarters of them nonunion.
The paper’s owner, Advance Publications, wants to buy out about 100 newsroom employees at The Star-Ledger, out of a total 330 to 350, the company’s president, Donald E. Newhouse, said. Newhouse said that the two papers had been operating in the red for years, and that they would lose $30 million to $40 million this year.
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