Staff To Be Cut Back At Post-Intelligencer

In a cost-cutting move prompted by declining revenues, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said yesterday it will reduce its staff by 10 percent, or 18 positions, by May 1.

The P-I, which is owned by the New York-based Hearst Corp., employs about 185 people in newsroom, accounting and other positions.

The elimination of 18 positions would roll back staffing to December 1989 levels, Publisher Virgil Fassio said.

P-I spokesman John Joly said staff members who wish to take an early retirement or resign voluntarily must notify the P-I by Monday. Managers would then begin to lay off staff.

The cuts come after a similar move at Hearst's flagship paper, the San Francisco Examiner, where it was announced March 7 that 25 of the newspaper's 250 employees would be laid off by the end of this week.

Because of a joint-operating agreement between The Seattle Times and P-I, the P-I has no production, circulation or advertising employees. Those positions are part of The Times' staff, where there have been no announcements of cuts.

``We're in the midst of some serious cost containment, but we've not planned any layoffs,'' Mason Sizemore, president of The Times, said today.

Although Seattle-area newspapers have not been as hard-hit as others nationwide, the P-I's move follows an announcement earlier this year that the Bellevue Journal American would lay off two employees. There also have been unconfirmed reports of possible layoffs at the Valley Daily News.

The P-I said those who leave the company voluntarily will receive severance payments in accordance with their length of employment, as specified in the contract with the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild. Joly said the P-I might add an additional incentive, but he was not more specific.

Fassio announced the cuts at a staff meeting yesterday afternoon in the P-I newsroom, saying they were necessary to control costs in light of declining revenues produced by the current economic climate.

Although staff members had been told revenues in January and February had fallen short of projections, several said Fassio's announcement came as a surprise.

Art Joyner, administrative officer for the guild, said he was informed of the cuts yesterday. His union represents about 175 P-I newsroom employees.

According to the guild contract, seniority would be the main factor in determining layoffs.

Lisa Schnellinger, a unit vice chairwoman at the P-I, said guild members were to meet at noon today to discuss a package of options to avoid layoffs. Among those options would be such things as proposing that employees accept a reduction in hours in order to keep jobs intact.

Executive Editor J.D. Alexander said the P-I would consider such options. Joly added that it was hoped layoffs could be avoided through voluntary resignations.

``We haven't said we're going to lay anybody off,'' he said.

The P-I cuts follow a dismal fourth-quarter performance for several publicly owned newspaper chains.

A Wall Street Journal average of 13 newspaper and media companies showed profits were down 27 percent for the last three months of 1990.