Institute Index: McClatchy and the downsizing of journalism

The latest Institute Index -- about deep budget cuts at newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. -- as featured in our e-newsletter Facing South. If you don't get Facing South, sign up now in the box in the upper right hand corner!

Size of workforce cuts announced this month by California-based newspaper chain McClatchy: 10 percent

Jobs lost: about 1,400

Jobs lost at the Miami Herald: 250, or 17 percent of the workforce

At the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer: 123, or 11 percent

At the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer: 70, or 8 percent

At the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, which is unionized: 17, or 4 percent

Annual savings expected as a result of the cuts: $70 million

Year McClatchy went heavily into debt to buy the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain: 2006

Debt remaining from the deal even after McClatchy sold a dozen former Knight-Ridder papers in slow-growing markets: $2.5 billion

Proportion of McClatchy ad revenue that comes from papers in Florida and California, which have been hit hard by the housing market crunch: more than 1/3

Fall in sales of print ads in the first quarter for U.S. newspapers overall: 14 percent

Last time there was such a dramatic quarterly decline: more than 30 years ago

Growth in McClatchy's online audience in 2007: 25 percent

In the first quarter of 2008: 41 percent

Gain in online ad revenue McClatchy reported last month: 12.9 percent

Drop in McClatchy's stock price in reaction to the job-cut announcement: 13 cents, to $8.02

Fall in company's stock value over the past year: more than 70 percent

Shares of McClatchy stock CEO Gary Pruitt beneficially owns: 13 million

Last year's pay for Pruitt: $4.6 million

Pruitt's additional bonus in 2007: $800,000

Salary of a newsroom aide laid off from one McClatchy paper: barely $20,000

Year in which McClatchy was founded by an Irish immigrant fleeing the potato famine: 1857