Taking action after the negative result in 2023.
Story House Egmont has to downsize by 60 man-years in Norway. The group announced this in a press release on Thursday morning.
– The trend from 2023 has unfortunately continued into 2024. The macroeconomic tendencies are fixed, with high prices and a low krone exchange rate, and retail and advertising revenues are lower than we had hoped for, says managing director of the media department in Story House Egmont, Per Kjellander in a press release.
– The savings plan last year was unfortunately not enough. We will have to further reduce costs and staffing in the Norwegian business, in order for it to be profitable and financially sustainable.
The employees were informed about the reorganization and downsizing today at a general meeting. The press release states that an open offer will be made for severance packages and gift pensions.
The downsizing will affect the editorial environment as well as sales, marketing and joint functions.
– We hope that we will be able to get through this downsizing with the greatest degree of volunteering. That is why we have adjusted the final packages, so that those of our talented employees who choose to accept, get the best possible start on a new chapter in their working life. In addition, we offer contributions to further education or career guidance, says Kjellander.
Changing strategy
The press release states that the media house is changing direction, and that the strategy of growth through new ventures will be replaced with a focus on quality content for print and digital platforms.
The Norwegian operation is also part of the European media organisation.
– The fact that we have organized ourselves across the countries means that we can regain profitability without compromising the quality of our brands, says Kjellander.
– We achieve this through more focus on standardized work processes, reduced system and supplier costs and far more exchange of content across the markets we operate in. Similar reorganization was carried out in 2020 when several countries in Europe were put under joint management.
The result plummeted
On Monday, the group published its annual result for 2023. It showed that the result fell from a profit of NOK 75.5 million in 2022 to a deficit of NOK 3.5 million in 2023.
Turnover also fell from NOK 1.03 billion to NOK 997.5 million.
– We are of course not satisfied with this year’s result, but we are determined to meet the challenges in the market through more efficient operations and by making better use of the fact that we are a large international player, said CEO. Per Kjellander in the press release on Monday.
