Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Feet on the street in Philly

The latest staff cuts in Philadelphia will leave 186 fewer journalists working at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News this year than in the fall of 2005, a reduction of 28.8%.

Several reports of the cutbacks announced this week don’t take into account the significant staff reduction undertaken by Knight Ridder before the papers were put up for sale in 2005.

In the fall of 2005, KRI cut 90 of the 515 newsroom jobs at the Inquirer and 25 of the 130 editorial positions at the Daily News, making for respective reductions of 17.5% and 19.2%.

If the Inquirer terminates the additional 71 positions announced this week, the paper will be left with 354 staffers, or 31.5% fewer feet on the street than the staff’s peak strength in the fall of 2005.