The Los Angeles Times announced Wednesday that it would eliminate 150 newsroom jobs — more than one-sixth of the staff — and publish 15 percent fewer pages, in the deepest of a series of cuts at Tribune Company newspapers as the company tries to stay afloat.þþIn all, the Los Angeles Times Media Group, which includes the paper and some smaller businesses, is cutting 250 jobs, which includes nonnewsroom jobs that have already been eliminated, said David D. Hiller, the publisher. Russ Stanton, the editor, said that the cuts would be carried out over the next two months.þþThe reduction goes far beyond what executives were predicting just a few months ago; in February, Mr. Hiller said he expected to decrease the news staff by 40 to 50 positions. When Samuel Zell took control of Tribune in December, he said he did not plan newsroom cuts.þþBut Tribune’s newspaper ad revenue was down 15 percent in the first quarter, and the company warned last month that significant cuts were coming.þþIn an era of shrinking newsrooms, The Los Angeles Times has been especially hard hit. It had about 1,300 people 10 years ago; after the new cuts, it will have around 720. Previous rounds of cuts involved voluntary buyouts, but this time executives say they expect layoffs.þþIn an interview, Mr. Stanton said it was too early to say what parts of the newsroom would be cut, but some reductions would be achieved by merging the online news staff into the main body of the newsroom.þþ“As you might expect, morale is pretty low right now, but we’re trying to keep people focused, and we continue to crank out a great paper every day,” he said. He stressed that even after the cuts the paper would have one of the country’s largest newsrooms.þþMr. Hiller and Mr. Stanton said they hoped that the latest newsroom downsizing would be the last for a long while, pausing the cycle of cut after cut that has made it hard for people to catch their breath and look to the future. þþ“We’re trying to get ahead of the changes that are rumbling through the entire industry, and envision what the enterprise needs to look like on a sustainable basis, rather than always playing catch-up,” Mr. Hiller said.þþOn June 5, in a conference call with bankers, analysts and reporters, Mr. Zell, the chairman and chief executive of Tribune, and Randy Michaels, the chief operating officer, said Tribune’s newspapers would print 500 fewer pages each week, a 12 percent reduction, to save money. þþMr. Michaels said that fact, combined with his conclusion that some journalists were so unproductive as to be dispensable, meant the company could get by with significantly fewer newsroom employees. He singled out The Los Angeles Times, citing figures that he said showed it had a far less productive newsroom than some other Tribune papers.þþThe company also publishes The Baltimore Sun, The Orlando Sentinel, Newsday — which it has agreed to sell to Cablevision — and several smaller papers. It owns some two dozen television stations and is trying to sell the Chicago Cubs baseball team and its home, Wrigley Field.þþFor decades, The Los Angeles Times has been considered one of the best papers in the country, a serious source of national and international news and in-depth explanatory and investigative articles.þþBut the mandate from Mr. Zell and his team has been to make the papers more local and more eye-catching, with more graphics and charts, and shorter articles. Each paper will get a physical makeover in the next few months.þþLast year, Tribune went private in an $8.2 billion deal, engineered by Mr. Zell and financed primarily with borrowed money, leaving the company with more than $12 billion in debt. It reported operating cash flow in 2007 of just under $1 billion, barely more than the annual debt service payments it now faces, and revenues are dropping fast. In addition, the company faces $1.4 billion in payments over the next year.þþThis article has been revised to reflect the following correction:þþCorrection: July 4, 2008 þAn article on Thursday about job cuts at The Los Angeles Times paraphrased incorrectly from comments by David D. Hiller, the publisher, and Russ Stanton, the editor, on the possibility of additional downsizing. Both men said that they hoped the latest cuts would be the last for a long while; they did not say that they believed they would be. þþ
Source: NY Times
