Pearson set to lay off 14% at the FT

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Jennifer Whitehead,

October 17, 2001

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Pearson set to lay off 14% at the FT

LONDON - Pearson is to cut staff numbers at the Financial Times by 14%, aiming to trim numbers from 1,050 to 900 and affecting marketing, management and journalists alike.

The news comes as Pearson issued a nine-month trading statement, which revealed it expects profits from the FT Group to be down 40% on last year.

According to Pearson, it hopes to make the job cuts through a mixture of early retirement and voluntary redundancy. There is no word on whether compulsory redundancies will follow if the media group does not reach its staff-reduction targets.

Despite a day of grim news for the group, which also owns the book publisher Penguin, the market responded favourably, with shares rising to 755p in afternoon trading -- an increase of 4% for the day.

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