Dutch newspaper cuts one in four jobs

The second-largest daily newspaper in the Netherlands, AD, is cutting 25 percent of its staff in the biggest cutback in the Netherlands since the beginning of the recession.

Like in many countries, Dutch newspapers are struggling with shrinking readership and plummeting advertising revenue. The crisis has hit particularly hard at AD, the second-largest newspaper in the Netherlands with a daily circulation of 456,000.

Now, AD's management has announced what the journalists' union has called the largest reorganisation in the history of Dutch newspapers. Of the 421 full-time editorial jobs at AD, 124 will be made redundant. A total of 185 jobs will be cut.

Debt-ridden

The massive redundancies are a result of disappointing advertising revenue, the paper said. Unlike in the US, for example, newspapers in the Netherlands rely heavily on subscriptions, which makes them a little less vulnerable to drops in advertising. But AD also carries a high debt as a result of the merger between Algemeen Dagblad and seven local papers in 2005.

Publisher Bernard van der Heijden said the measures were necessary "for our continuation in the short term." The paper said it will maintain its level of reporting by using more freelancers.

AD was launched in 2005 as a joint-venture between PCM publishers and Wegener. PCM, which owned national newspaper Algemeen Dagblad took 63 percent of the company. Wegener - a subsidiary of British media investment company Mecom - owned some of the local papers involved in the merger and got 37 percent.

PCM is set to buy out Wegener before the summer with the help of its new large shareholder: the Persgroup from Belgium. The Persgroep invested 100 million euros in all PCM papers - including NRC Handelsblad - in March. When that deal is sealed, The Persgroep will own over 50 percent of PCM shares.

Strike

"All the costs of the 2005 reorganisation were shifted to the new AD balance," editor in chief Jan Bonjer told NRC Handelsblad. "We did alright in the past two years, but not good enough to clear away the debt."

The Persgroep also owns a number of Belgian newspapers. Cut-backs there have led to a strike at daily De Morgen, where 13 people were fired on Saturday, including some senior journalists. On Tuesday, the paper did not come out for the first time in its 30 year history. On Wednesday, De Morgen's columnists announced they will not write for a month, saying that these lay-offs "put the quality of the paper in jeopardy."