GateHouse's Dedham paper to go weekly
The Daily News Transcript in Dedham is reducing the frequency of its print publication from five days a week to one on Oct. 1, according to a person briefed on the decision, who requested anonymity.
Declining circulation and an advertising slump led to the decision to go weekly, but GateHouse Media Inc.,which owns the newspaper, plans no immediate layoffs, according to the source. Managers were told about the decision yesterday, but advertisers and staff have yet to be formally notified.
Greg Reibman, publisher of the Metro Unit of GateHouse Media New England, declined to comment on the report. "As every company should do, we are always evaluating our business strategies," he wrote in an email. "But we have no announcements."
In May, GateHouse temporarily cut salaries by an average of 7.75 percent for most of its 1,500 New England employees. At the time, Rick Daniels, chief executive of GateHouse Media New England, said the recession had hurt advertising revenue at newspaers in major metropolitian markets in the Bay State, forcing it to pare costs at its New England Unit. GateHouse owns more than 100 newspapers in the state, including the Patriot Ledger of Quincy.
The parent company, which has acquired 416 newspapers nationwide since 1998, has reduced its workforce by 10 percent since the beginning of the year. According to an estimate, the company has slashed 25 percent of its total staff in the last two years.
GateHouse Media New England also closed seven publications in May, including the Plymouth Bulletin.
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