Juan Luis Cebrian, PRISA CEO and EL PAÍS president, announced measures to guarantee the newspaper’s lifespan for the coming years as it faces a drop in advertising revenues and other difficult circumstances caused by the European crisis.
Measures include early retirement packages, reductions in personnel and closing down regional offices throughout Spain.
The company did not indicate how many jobs would go but a source present at a meeting of management and staff Tuesday cited Prisa's chairman Juan Luis Cebrian as saying that about 150 people would be laid off.
Cebrian acknowledged these measures as some of the most “painful” in EL PAIS’ 36-year history, but “unavoidable”. He also mentioned “It is not a question of improving profits; the newspaper cannot bear its present cost structure for much longer”.
Despite calls from the union to hold off for one month the employee reduction plan, company officials have said that they will present their reduction plan as scheduled.
