Naspers possibly cutting up to 20% of South Africa staff

Naspers Ltd., Africa’s largest media company, plans to cut 10 percent to 20 percent of the jobs at its South Africa newspaper unit as advertising slumps, according to three company employees.

Executives briefed workers last week on possible job cuts, according to the three, who declined to be identified because the details aren’t public. A memo sent to employees and obtained by Bloomberg News also confirmed employment would be reduced.

Some of Naspers’ newspapers, which include the Afrikaans- language publications Beeld, Die Burger, Volksblad and Rapport, have been hit by falling circulation amid an economic slump, according to the undated memo from Abraham van Zyl, the head of newspapers at Media24, Naspers’s South African print unit. Ad spending in South Africa fell 8 percent from January to August.

Naspers declined to specify the number of print employees in South Africa. The company, which also owns pay-TV operations and Web sites in Russia and China, employed 13,800 people as of March 31, according to Bloomberg data.

On Nov. 26, Naspers reported that net income more than doubled to 3.5 billion rand ($354 million) for the six months through Sept. 30 on the sale of a pay-TV unit in Greece and Cyprus. Revenue overall grew 32 percent, while sales at print media in South Africa rose 4 percent. Employment is being cut because of the “depressed macro-economic conditions,” it said.

Francois Groepe, chief executive officer of Media24, declined to confirm the percentage of staff being cut. Job reductions started last year and “further reductions are under way,” he said in an e-mailed response to questions.

“We will not announce the number or percentage of staff reductions,” Groepe said. “Headcount information will however be disclosed in our annual financial statements as has been our practice in the past.”

By Nicky Smith and Mike Cohen via