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Media Giant Feels the Pinch
Shrinking ad revenue forces cuts at Courant, Fox 61
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Business New Haven
11/26/2001
By: BNH
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The nationwide advertising slowdown has come home to roost in Connecticut.
On November 14, the Chicago-based Tribune Co., parent of the Hartford Courant, WTIC-TV and the Advocate weekly newspaper chain, announced that it would cut pay for about 140 senior managers and freeze salaries for non-union employees next year.
In addition, new hiring by the company will be limited to “critical” functions as the Tribune continues to reduce headcount through attrition. The company announced that it also expected to realize additional cost savings from union employees.
Earlier this month the Tribune Co. announced that advertising revenues fell eight percent in October to $410 million, company-wide, from October 2000. For the first ten months of 2001, overall revenues declined 6.5 percent from the same period a year ago.
Both Courant Publisher Jack Davis and Gary Zenobi, general manager of WTIC-TV and WTXX-TV, asserted that readers and viewers would not any declines in the quality of content.
The Tribune Co. owns 11 daily newspapers - including the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times - and 23 television stations nationwide.
Closer to home, the parent company of the New Haven Register reported that advertising revenues at its flagship daily were down 6.7 percent for the four-week period ended September 24 (the most recent for which numbers are available). Retail and classified revenues in New Haven were each down 15.7 percent - “reflecting the effects of September 11 and its aftermath,” according to a company statement.
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