Barrington To Slash Staff
Gross and Net Revenues Were Up in Q1.
By Michael Malone -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/6/2008 10:20:00 AM
Barrington Broadcasting Group will reduce its workforce by 8% in the next few months, the company stated in its first-quarter earnings report. “This reduction is expected to be completed during the second quarter and costs associated with the workforce reduction have not yet been determined and will be reported in the second quarter results,” the company said.
Barrington reported gross revenues for the first quarter of $31.3 million, up 2.8% from the same quarter in 2007. Barrington cited political advertising as the reason for the bump.
Net revenues were $26.7 million, up 2.6% from the same quarter last year. Broadcast cash flow increased 1.9% to $7 million for the quarter.
Barrington CEO K. James Yager said newsroom technology and a weak economy will push the company to make due with fewer people. “As a result of weakness in the national economy, we have moved to utilize new technology and operating structures to drive more efficiency at each of our stations,” he said. “We believe this will result in greater innovation and improved local programming quality, and these efficiency initiatives will allow us to operate with about 8% fewer employees than we have in the past.
“Although we've seen progress in our new approach to converting local newspaper and yellow page advertisers to broadcast television,” he continued, “it has not been enough at this point to fully offset the weakness in national advertising and weak categories like automotive."
Barrington owns, operates or supports 23 stations. It is owned by the private investment firm Pilot Group.
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Is this across all Barrington stations? Or specified locations?
Tony Allen - 5/9/2008 1:00:00 PM EDT -
I hope they are smart with the cuts and cut the dead weight and not the people that actually get all the work done. In these types of situations, it's typical for management to save its own butt and to sacrifice employees that really do most of the work. If you have a capable Assistant News Director and a News Director with a fat salary it's a no brainer who to cut.
James Morris - 5/7/2008 10:21:00 AM EDT
Barrington Net Revenue Up 7.2% In Q4
03/17/2009Nexstar Q2 Revenue Down 12%
08/12/2009Strong Q2 for Nexstar Broadcasting
08/08/2007Barrington Net Rev Drops 16%
05/13/2009
