Newspaper & Mailroom

Journal Sentinel Inc. Reduces Workforce

Wednesday 05. August 2009 - Journal Sentinel Inc. announced today that it will reduce its workforce by 92 employees, or 6.2% of its total workforce.

These reductions include 37 voluntary buy-out offers that were accepted in the Journal Sentinel newsroom. Most of the employees affected by the voluntary and involuntary separations are expected to leave the company in August. Journal Sentinel Inc. is a Journal Communications, Inc. (NYSE:JRN) company.

“The advertising recession continues to affect our business,” said Steven J. Smith, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Journal Communications. “While these changes are difficult, we must be diligent about reducing our expense platform in order to preserve the overall strength of the Journal Sentinel through and beyond this challenging time. Today we also need to say thank-you to a number of Journal Sentinel colleagues for many years of exceptional service.”

Journal Communications anticipates gross workforce reduction charges of between $4 and $5.5 million during the second half of the year primarily through the voluntary and involuntary workforce reductions at the Journal Sentinel during the third quarter as well as reductions in workforce at both the printing services and direct marketing businesses. These actions and other cost reduction initiatives are anticipated to generate annualized savings of approximately $21 million across Journal Communications companies.

“We will continue to maintain our high quality local news focus and keep our audience penetration high,” said Elizabeth (Betsy) Brenner, President and Publisher of Journal Sentinel. “We will align our costs to a smaller revenue base while delivering a newspaper and other products that are attractive to our readers and advertisers. We will be responsive to the evolving mix of print and digital products our customers are looking for. Through it all, we remain committed to being the leading news gathering organization in Southeastern Wisconsin.”