Layoffs loom at newspaper
This is a time of bad news for daily general circulation newspapers, many of which are seeing ad revenue and readership decline as websites replace newsprint as the venue for news and information.
Reflecting this turmoil, the Kingston Daily Freeman, founded in 1871, is considering laying off roughly 60 of its 100 production workers, outsourcing its printing to Troy and hiring a contractor to deliver its newspapers. ?The moves are part of a bid to create a stronger presence online, according to Freeman Publisher Ira Fusfeld, who acknowledges that the content of the daily print edition would suffer. But he said the company would have a better website and said that is where the industry and the world are moving.
“It would be foolish for us or any industry not to go where their customers are going,” he said.?The company has sent official notice to the state and federal government under the WARN Act, (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) that  61 of 100 employees would be laid off as of Dec. 7. State law mandates a 90-day advance notification, but Fusfeld said that  a final decision had not yet been made, and that the notification was sent only to cover legal bases in case the layoffs go through.
The paper is negotiating with the unions involved and also ensuring that the Record in Troy, its sister publication, is able to handle the additional workload.?But union leaders said they believe the decision is made and that only an outcry by the community and subscribers can reverse it.
Patricia Doxsey, president of the Kingston Newspaper Guild local 31180, representing the mailroom and drivers who would be most affected by job losses, said the irony is that the Freeman print edition and its parent company are both making money from the current configuration.
“How do you justify making this move when your print edition makes money?” Doxsey asked. ?She predicted the move would ultimately kill the print edition, because it could not include key, late breaking news, such as election results. If production is sent to Troy, then deadlines for stories would be 8 p.m. Â “How do you get election results in the next day”™s paper, when polls don”™t even close until 9 p.m.?” she asked.
“We have grave concerns about what this will do to the quality of our newspaper.”
Doxsey said the Freeman”™s parent company, the Journal-Register, made $40 million profit last year and that this move would save $600,000. “The Freeman is a profitable newspaper, which is not something that can be said about every newspaper these days. And if we”™re making money with the print edition, why would you want to kill the goose?”?Fusfeld did not dispute her figures, but said as a publisher, his role was future profitability of the Freeman.
“To save $500,000 to $700,000 that”™s a number that gets my attention,” Fusfeld said. “That”™s not a small number.”?He said that as a reporter and now publisher for the Freeman spanning a 40-year career, he feels a responsibility to ensure it endures as an ongoing new organization serving Kingston.? “My role is to make sure this is a healthy franchise going forward. They miss you when you”™re gone and we don”™t want to be gone.”