Hello Fayetteville Publishing Co. on Wednesday offered employees voluntary buyouts in an effort to reduce costs amid declining revenues in the newspaper industry.
The parent company of The Fayetteville Observer and other publications employs about 400 people in Fayetteville. The offers were made across all departments. The company did not say how many jobs it hopes to reduce.
In a letter to employees, Publisher Charles Broadwell acknowledged layoffs might be needed at a later date depending on the number of people taking the buyouts.
“In the future, even with these staff reductions, I anticipate we will still have a larger staff than most newspapers our size as we continue to focus on quality and invest in our company’s long-term growth plan,” Broadwell wrote in the letter.
Across the industry, newspapers and other media companies have been faced with rising costs, such as newsprint prices, while dealing with the economic downturn and its effect on advertising revenue.
In June, the McClatchy Co. announced a 10 percent reduction of its workforce, or about 1,400 jobs, to cut costs. The company publishes North Carolina’s two largest newspapers, The (Raleigh) News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer, which announced nearly 200 job cuts combined. The cuts were to be made through voluntary departures, layoffs and attrition.
The Fayetteville Observer is one of the largest private, independently owned newspapers in the country. Fayetteville Publishing is one of the biggest employers in Cumberland County and produces the Sandspur, Carolina Trader, Next! magazine and Acento Latino.
Fayetteville Publishing also owns Iwanna, two classified-advertising publications based in Asheville and Greenville, S.C.