The Star-Ledger - 2000s Financial Troubles

2000s Financial Troubles

In 2005, George Arwady became the publisher of The Star-Ledger. A graduate of Columbia University, Arwady had previously been the publisher of the Kalamazoo Gazette in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Having worked closely with the Newhouse family for years, Arwady was asked to move to Newark to financially revamp the paper.

Because the paper was losing money, parent company Advance Publications said on July 31, 2008 that it would sell the Star-Ledger unless it could get 200 of its non-union staff to voluntarily leave under a buyout offer, and its unionized truck drivers and mailers to agree to concessions. On September 16 publisher George Arwady sent employees a status update by e-mail, saying that management felt progress had been made on the buyout and concessions from the mailers, but that management is "far from an agreement with the Drivers’ union.". The email continued:

Since it is doubtful that the Drivers will ratify an agreement by October 8, 2008, we will be sending formal notices to all employees this week, as required by both federal and New Jersey law, advising you that the Company will be sold, or, failing that, that it will close operations on January 5, 2009.

On October 24, 2008, the newspaper announced that 168 newsroom employees had offered to take the company's buyout offer, and that the company had accepted 151 of them, which will result in a newsroom staff that's 40% smaller.