The target to report a break-even result for Svenska Dagbladet within 2002 might be hard to achieve, and the Board of Svenska Dagbladet therefore decided the following activities to reduce costs:
· Staff reductions by 55 man-years.
· The focus will be on core business, which results in a considerable reduction of the newspaper's Internet activities.
· The distribution will be rationalised and the printing in Umeå will be stopped.
The total cost reduction is estimated to be SEK 55 million on an annual basis. Restructuring costs will be booked in the second half of 2001.
Schibsted do still believe in a possibility of getting a profitable operation of Svenska Dagbladet, and will continue to support Svenska Dagbladet during the restructuring process. The circulation of Svenska Dagbladet has increased during the last nine months in the Stockholm area and the newspaper will continue to improve to be a modern big-city newspaper with a wide and young group as target readers.