The Associated Press will trim 10 per cent of its work force over the next year as a reduction in fees paid by member newspapers and a declining economy take their toll, chief executive Tom Curley said Thursday.
The staff reduction will amount to a loss of more than 400 positions from a global staff of 4,100, and Curley said the cuts will include some of the news co-operative's 3,000 journalists.
Curley told the staff in a meeting webcast to AP offices globally that he hopes most of the cuts will be achieved through attrition, but he did not rule out layoffs.
Asked if the cuts would include newsroom jobs, Curley noted that 75 per cent of the staff are journalists. "Everybody's going to participate," he said.
The AP faces problems on several fronts. CNN wants to set up a competing wire service, and more than 100 U.S. newspapers have threatened to quit the newsgathering co-operative.