In a move to cut costs and consolidate certain production operations, Hearst Connecticut Media Group will lay off 72 workers in February. The jobs include 16 full-time production positions as well as 56 part-time positions in the production department.
As part of an agreement with the Hartford Courant, “we will move all of our insert packaging and a small portion of our advance printing to the Courant”™s production facilities in Hartford,” said Henry B. Haitz III, president and group publisher of Hearst Connecticut Media Group.
Haitz said the move comes amid changes in a newspaper industry that is navigating “a rapidly changing digital frontier.”
Hearst publishes the Connecticut Post, The Advocate of Stamford, The News-Times of Danbury and Greenwich Time.
“We will continue to print each of our four daily newspapers in our Bridgeport facility and utilize our existing warehouse as the distribution center for the Connecticut Post,” Haitz said.
The layoffs will take effect in early February, with eligible employees receiving “a generous severance package including benefits continuation during the severance period.”
Westfair Communications Inc., publisher of the Fairfield County Business Journal, entered into a news-sharing agreement with Hearst Connecticut Media Group in July.
