Posted by chicagomedia.org on July 09, 2008 at 14:23:27:
Chicago Tribune to cut 80 newsroom positions
The Chicago Tribune began informing staff Tuesday it will eliminate around 80 of its current 578 newsroom positions by the end of August and reduce the number of pages it publishes by 13 percent to 14 percent each week.
There also will be a reduction of jobs in other Chicago Tribune departments, but that number was not immediately available. A paper spokesman declined comment.
Because some newsroom jobs have been left unfilled in recent months, the actual number of staffers to exit the paper is expected to be between 55 and 58.
"Like many newspapers, we're feeling financial pressures," Hanke Gratteau, the Chicago Tribune's managing editor for news, said.
These reductions are the paper's fourth since late 2005, when its newsroom had around 670 positions. They have been expected since Randy Michaels, chief operating officer of Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co., said last month in a conference call with lenders that all the company's papers would be cutting staff and the number of pages by mid-September in response to steep declines in publishing revenue so far this year.
These industrywide trends, the result of online advertising revenue growth unable to offset print advertising declines, are resonating in similar fashion at nearly every U.S. newspaper company, including the New York Times and Washington Post.
The Los Angeles Times, Tribune Co.'s largest newspaper, announced last week it planned to reduce the number of pages it publishes each week by 15 percent and eliminate roughly 150 jobs--or about 17 percent--from its newsroom by Labor Day, and had already made progress toward reduction of another 100 positions from its other departments. Coupled with other cuts over the years, the Times' newsroom now is a little more than half the size it was at its peak in the 1990s.
At Tribune Co., industry troubles are compounded by the debt load the company took on late last year in going private, an $8.2 billion transaction engineered by real estate billionaire Sam Zell, who became the company's chairman and chief executive.
There are also major obligations due this year and next. Zell has said this year should be covered through Cablevision Systems Corp.'s $650 million deal to acquire control of Newsday, Tribune Co.'s paper in Long Island, N.Y., as well as through new credit arrangements finalized last week.
Additionally, Tribune Co. reached agreement today to sell its 42.5 percent share of online shopping Web site ShopLocal.com to partner Gannett Co. for around $22 million.
The anticipated sale of the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field is expected to help cover next year's obligation.
Scott C. Smith, the Chicago Tribune's publisher, retired last week, leaving Tribune Co. after more than 30 years. Bob Gremillion, Tribune Co.'s executive vice president for publishing, has assumed oversight of the paper temporarily until Smith's successor is named.
Besides the cutbacks, Tribune Co. papers are all redesigning their formats. The Orlando Sentinel already has introduced its new look and the others, including the Chicago Tribune, will unveil their overhauls by the end of September.
(Rosenthal)