Employee concessions save The Star-Ledger

Richard Perez-Pena writes that The Star-Ledger in New Jersey is safe for now. But at what cost? The paper’s owners announced Wednesday that the business is safe for now after employees agreed to buyouts and other work concessions. The company’s drivers, for example, agreed to a wage freeze among other things. From the article in The New York Times:

The paper will reduce its work force through buyouts from more than 1,000 people to fewer than 800, said Donald Newhouse, president of Advance Publications, which is owned by his family. A similar cost-cutting program staved off the potential closure of a smaller sister paper, The Trenton Times.
Mr. Newhouse has said that The Star-Ledger, based in Newark, is on a pace to lose $40 million this year, as the economy slows and the newspaper industry suffers through the sharpest drop in advertising revenue since the Depression. With the buyouts and union concessions, the paper should return to operating in the black, he said, but he added that the times were too uncertain for firm predictions.

Read the full article here.