Spiegel-Verlag cuts 150 jobs
The cost-cutting measures announced in June by the German publisher Spiegel-Verlag are expected to result in the loss of about 20 percent of its jobs. An estimated 150 of the nearly 730 jobs will be cut, the news magazine’s publisher announced on Tuesday.
"I very much regret that we have to part ways with colleagues," explained Managing Director Thomas Hass. The shareholders of the company, which is majority-owned by its own employees, have now approved the savings and growth program, with which the management and editorial team aim to permanently reduce costs by around 16 million euros by the end of 2017. The editorial department is to save 6.4 million euros, the documentation department 1.5 million euros and the publishing house 8.2 million euros. Minority shareholders are the Bertelsmann subsidiary Gruner + Jahr and the heirs of the magazine's founder Rudolf Augstein. In order to cushion the decline in revenue from the printed magazine, the publisher intends to strengthen its digital offering and expand the existing free Spiegel Online offering to include paid-for articles. There are also plans for a paid service called "Der Spiegel international", a daily news service and an improvement to the app, with which the printed magazine can already be read for a fee as an e-paper. The printed Spiegel is to be given a regional section for North Rhine-Westphalia on a trial basis. (SDA)
