Newfoundland mill to close; 800 jobs lost

The Montreal-based newsprint giant will cut 830,000 tonnes of capacity, or 17 per cent of its production, next year as it deals with volatile exchange rates, energy and fibre pricing, as well as falling North America demand.

North American newsprint demand has dropped in recent years as newspapers get smaller because of a squeeze on advertising and expansion of online news and advertising. The slumping economy has also cut demand, leading to mill shutdowns and production cuts.

"The North American newsprint market continues to contract and our customers have told us they anticipate further decline," president and CEO David Paterson said.

"International customers have also indicated that export growth will not be as strong in the coming year. We have the resolve to adapt to these realities and to set the stage for continued quarter-over-quarter improvements."

AbitibiBowater made significant cuts last year to streamline operations after Montreal-based Abitibi-Consolidated merged with South Carolina-based Bowater Inc. AbitibiBowater has described the Grand Falls-Windsor operation as the highest-cost mill of its kind in North America.

-- The Canadian Press

NBC Universal trims 3 per cent of workforce

LOS ANGELES -- General Electric Co.'s media and theme park subsidiary, NBC Universal, this week laid off about 500 employees -- about three per cent of its workforce of 15,000 -- as part of a plan to trim US$500 million next year, a person familiar with the situation said Thursday.

Several correspondents and other staff were laid off at NBC News. Positions were cut in roughly even proportions across NBC Universal's ad sales, theme parks, movie studio and cable networks, said the person, who requested anonymity.

The moves included putting the nightly CNBC show The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch on hiatus, said Brian Steel, vice-president of CNBC public relations.

"Given current economic conditions the feeling was that now is not the right time to do a 'success' show five days a week," Steel said. Deutsch will now work on a monthly special and appear regularly on CNBC and the Today Show, he said.

The staff reductions are in line with the corporate goal of a three per cent budget cut next year.

They are part of the cuts NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker announced in a memo in October, saying "it has become evident that the decline in consumer confidence and spending will impact our operations" and that the company "must take steps now to prepare for these new economic realities."

-- The Associated Press

AT&T slashes 12,000 jobs... and others follow suit

NEW YORK -- Pressured by the economic turmoil and the mounting loss of traditional phone customers, AT&T Inc. is cutting 12,000 jobs, about four per cent of its work force.

The Dallas-based telecommunications company, the largest in the United States, said the job cuts will begin this month and run throughout 2009. The company also plans to lower its capital spending next year, and one analyst estimates that reduction could be as much as US$2 billion.

The 300,000-person company has announced layoffs several times over the past few years, including in April, when it said it would eliminate 4,600 jobs, but it has been hiring at the same time. This is the first time since the company bought BellSouth Corp. in 2006 that it said overall staffing would decline.

The new cuts were part of a parade of layoffs tied to the recession.

In addition Thursday, chemicals company DuPont announced plans to lose 2,500 jobs, Credit Suisse Group slashed 5,300 and media conglomerate Viacom Inc. jettisoned 850. Yet AT&T, which provides local phone coverage in California, Texas and 20 other states, is also being pulled by another current: the long-term trend of people defecting from landline phones to wireless services or phone service from the cable company.

In the last quarter, AT&T's basic voice lines in service dropped 11 per cent. Its wireless customer base, meanwhile, grew 14 per cent.

Book publisher eliminates jobs

NEW YORK -- There was more bad news from the book industry Thursday with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announcing the "streamlining" of its educational business and the elimination of jobs in both its education and general divisions.

In addition, HarperCollins and Pearson, part of Penguin Group (USA), are freezing wages and considering layoffs.

"This is the most challenging economic environment that any of us has ever experienced," Penguin Group chairman John Makinson wrote in a company memo, circulated Thursday.

In it, he said raises worldwide would be held off for Pearson employees making $50,000 or more and said he could not promise there would be no job losses in 2009.

"In this financial climate that would be plain foolhardy," he said.

This week alone, Random House Inc. announced a massive consolidation that will likely result in layoffs, Simon & Schuster cut 35 jobs and Thomas Nelson Publishers fired 54 workers.

A top executive at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Becky Saletan, quit in apparent protest of a freeze on the acquisition of new books.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, one of the world's leading education publishers and home to such authors as Philip Roth and Jonathan Safran Foer, announced Thursday that it would combine "various of its businesses into a new K-12 organization comprised of School Publishers, Holt McDougal" and others.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 5, 2008 B13