Annahar lays off 55 employees

Lebanese newspaper Annahar yesterday said it has made 55 employees redundant in the past few days.

The lay offs included senior management, reporters and staff employees at one of the oldest newspapers in Lebanon.

Ghassan Hajjar, Managing Editor, said the lay offs were meant for reform.

He said the economic downturn has affected all the players in the market, including the newspaper. However, he said: "We are not suffering a major financial crisis."

He said the actions taken by the management of the newspaper were recommended by Booz Allen Hamilton consultancy, which conducted a study on the newspaper's finance, management and productivity situation a year ago.

Hajjar said the consultancy firm recommended that the newspaper shed more than 80 employees, but that it did not see that feasible.

He told Emirates Business that there was no plan to lay off any more employees for the time being, noting that management would decide on such measures based on the evaluation of the impacts of the current lay offs on the development of the newspaper's productivity.

According to inside information, Edmond Saab Executive Editor-in-Chief was asked to leave in addition to the head of the training centre, the editor of the last page, the sports editor, the legal editor and the editor of Nahar Al Shabab supplement.

Annahar shareholders include Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz and Saad Al Hariri.