Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley told employees at a company wide staff meeting Thursday that the organization could lose up to 10 percent of its staff next year.
“The AP, which recently instituted a strategic hiring freeze, may need to reduce staff over the next year. If so, it hopes to achieve much of the reduction through attrition,” said AP spokesman Paul Colford.
AP has about 4,100 employees worldwide, 3,000 of which are in news, so it looks like no particular area will come out of this unscathed.
And Colford was a bit awestruck by the reaction of the staff after the meeting.
“As a former newspaper man of longstanding, I can’t recall a company-wide meeting which ended with a round of applause for the CEO, but that was the case today,” he said.
He also said that despite potential reductions, plans for the rollout of regional desks in the United States will continue, with hubs being developed in Chicago and Phoenix joining those already announced in Atlanta and Philadelphia.
