"Media General Inc., the newspaper publisher and television station operator, said Thursday that it will cut its work force by nearly 11 percent by October to reduce operating costs.

The 750 job cuts are paired with other operating cost reductions, as the company faces a slumping U.S. economy and a deepening recession in Florida, where it has numerous operations, Marshall N. Morton, the company’s president and chief executive said in a news release.

“Media General continues to implement its announced performance improvement initiatives across all parts of the company,” Morton said. “Our efforts to reduce operating costs have necessarily included personnel.”

The publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Tampa Tribune [Charlottesville Daily Progress, Danville Register & Bee, Lynchburg News & Advance] and Winston-Salem Journal said it expects annual savings of $40 million from the job cuts, which began in early 2007, and will be fully realized next year. Media General will post severance charges of between $4 million and $4.5 million in the second quarter.

Staff reductions, which will decrease the total number of employees to 6,150 by the beginning of the third quarter, are spread across publishing, broadcast and corporate operations. The company did, however, increase positions in its interactive media division as it focuses on the Internet.

Shares of Media General rose 7.7 percent, or $1.14, to $15.95 in morning trading.

The company also said its April revenue dropped 10.9 percent, hurt mostly by weakness in classified advertising. The company reported total revenue fell to $78.7 million, from $88.3 million in the prior-year period.

The newspaper industry has struggled as consumers and advertisers continue to migrate to the Internet. Companies have been forced to cut costs and ramp up Web operations.

Media General said last month its first-quarter loss widened to $20.3 million in the January-March period, compared with a loss of $6.5 million during the same period last year.

In addition to its three metropolitan newspapers, Media General owns 22 daily community newspapers in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama and South Carolina as well as community newspapers and approximately 275 weekly newspapers and other targeted publications. It also owns 22 network-affiliated television stations." (Michael Felberbaum, Associated Press, May 22, 2008)