Jobs to go at Swedish daily

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on February 8, 2010 at 3:08 PM

Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter has announced that it will cut between 100 and 120 jobs after sustaining multi-million euro losses, The Local reports. This amounts to almost one sixth of the newspaper's workforce.

The company employs 580 people, with half of these in the newsroom. Most of the cuts are expected to affect editorial staff, with more than a third of these set to go.

The newspaper reported losses of 97 million kronor, or around €10 million, last year. Despite this, union official Hans Arbman said that the cuts were unexpected.

"We have known for a while that we have had financial problems. But this landed like a bomb. I can not understand what has happened now to make this necessary," he said.

More details of the cuts are expected to be made public in coming weeks, he added.

Dagens Nyheter is Sweden's largest morning newspaper with a circulation of around 340,000 and a readership of 890,000 in a country that has a population of 9.3 million.

The decline in advertising revenue and the global recession have caused financial difficulties for newspapers around the world: in recent weeks alone, staff have been cut at The Guardian, Blick, AOL and the Evening Standard, among other publications. Even though the Swedish government subsidises the press, it seems it is not immune from the same challenges.

Sources: The Local, The Swedish Wire