Dow Jones & Company Announces Staff Reductions At Ottaway Newspapers.NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 29, 1998--Dow Jones & Company announced today that it is reducing the budgeted full-time staff at its Ottaway group of community newspapers by 220, or 8.4%. While some of the staff reductions have been accomplished by attrition under a cost-saving plan in effect since the beginning of this year, actual full-time employment at the unit will drop by 125, or 4.9%, from current levels by August 1. Dow Jones Dow Jones the best known of several U.S. indexes of movements in price on Wall Street. [Am. Hist.: Payton, 202] See : Finance will take a charge against earnings for severance and related costs at Ottaway in the third quarter. The after-tax charge is estimated to be $5 million, or five cents per share Cents per share The amount of a mutual fund's dividend or capital gains distributions that a shareholder will receive for each share owned. . James H. Ottaway, Jr., senior vice president of Dow Jones and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Ottaway Newspapers, said, "We have said for some time that we are determined to bring the already-solid margins of our Ottaway Newspapers up to the average level for community newspapers. The steps we are announcing today, along with other cost-reduction and revenue-enhancement measures now under way, while difficult, will accelerate this outcome." Ottaway Newspapers had an EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) A metric used to show a company's profitability, but not its cash flow. EBITDA became popular in the 1980s to show the potential profitability of leveraged buyouts, but has become margin of just over 22% in 1997, while the community newspaper industry average was roughly 27%. Peter R. Kann, chairman and chief executive officer of Dow Jones, said "We now have a detailed plan in place to bring about significant margin improvement at Ottaway Newspapers, and thereby to create more value for Dow Jones shareholders." Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. was founded in 1936, and was acquired by Dow Jones in 1970. Ottaway publishes 19 daily and 17 weekly newspapers in communities in 12 of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . Total circulation is more than 715,000. In addition to Ottaway Newspapers, Dow Jones & Company (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : DJ) publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and Interactive editions, Barron's and SmartMoney magazines and other periodicals, Dow Jones Newswires Dow Jones Newswires is the real-time financial news organization owned by Dow Jones. Founded in 1882, its primary competitors are Bloomberg L.P. and Reuters. The company reports more than 420,000 subscribers -- including brokers, traders, analysts and fund managers -- as of July , Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Interactive. Dow Jones is co-owner of the CNBC CNBC Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (artificial intelligence) CNBC Consumer News and Business Channel CNBC Congress of National Black Churches, Inc. television operations in Asia and Europe, and also provides news content to CNBC in the U.S. This release contains forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, competition from other community newspapers, free newspapers and other media; the impact of business, economic and stock market conditions on advertising sales; the cost of newsprint; and such other risk factors as have been or may be included from time to time in the company's reports filed with the SEC. -0-
6/29/98
OTTAWAY NEWSPAPERS-- Staff Reductions
current budgeted full-time employment: 2629
actual full-time employment 6/1/98: 2534
projected full-time employment 8/1/98: 2409
severance and related costs: $5 million, after taxes,
or five cents per Dow Jones (NYSE:DJ) share
Ottaway Newspapers financial results
1997 revenues $300,611,000 up 4.6%
1997 operating income 50,584,000 up 15.6%
1997 EBITDA 67,138,000 up 12.6%
1998 1st quarter revenues $ 70,897,000 up 4.2%
1998 1st quar. oper. inc. 8,155,000 down 2.6%
1998 1st quarter EBITDA 12,450,000 up 0.7%
daily circulation: 572,000
non-daily circulation: 145,000
advertising linage, 1998 through May:
daily newspapers up 0.3%
non-daily newspapers up 28.7%
total linage up 3.9%
Ottaway daily newspapers: Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, city, United States Santa Cruz (săn`tə kr  z), city (1990 pop. 49,040), seat of Santa Cruz co., W Calif., on the north shore of Monterey Bay; inc. 1866. Daily Sentinel, Santa Cruz,
Calif.; The News-Times, Danbury, Conn.; The Daily Independent, Ashland,
Ky.; Cape Cod Times The Cape Cod Times is a broadsheet daily newspaper serving Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States. It is owned by Ottaway Community Newspapers, a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, Inc. , Hyannis, Mass.; Salem Evening News, Salem, Mass.;
Gloucester Times, Gloucester, Mass.; The Daily News, Newburyport, Mass.;
The Standard-Times, New Bedford New Bedford, city (1990 pop. 99,922), seat of Bristol co., SE Mass., at the mouth of the Acushnet River on Buzzard's Bay; settled 1640, set off from Dartmouth 1787, inc. as a city 1847. , Mass.; Traverse City Traverse City, city (1990 pop. 15,155), seat of Grand Traverse co., N Mich., at the head of the West Arm of Grand Traverse Bay, in a resort and cherry-growing region; inc. 1881. Record- Eagle,
Traverse City, Mich.; The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.; The Joplin Globe,
Joplin, Mo.; Portsmouth, N.H., Herald; Press-Republican, Plattsburgh,
N.Y.; The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y.; The Times-Herald Record,
Middletown, N.Y.; Mail Tribune, Medford, Ore.; The Herald, Sharon, Pa.;
The Pocono Record, Stroudsburg, Pa.; The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
CONTACT: Dow Jones & Company, New York
Richard Tofel, 212/416-2951
Valerie Gerard, 212/416-2687
URL: http://www.dowjones.com
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