Posted by chicagomedia.org on April 22, 2009 at 13:28:07:
Chicago Tribune reduces newsroom staff
The Chicago Tribune today reduced its newsroom staff, a response to the economic downturn and changes in the media business model.
The exit of 53 editorial employees is part of a paper-wide cost-cutting effort. Tribune Editor Gerould Kern said in a letter to staff that cuts are part of a newsroom reorganization that "will focus us more clearly on our core mission" going forward with a newsgathering team of around 430.
"With today's actions, we are making the leap to a newsroom structure that we believe is sustainable barring further significant declines in advertising revenue," Kern wrote. "While some are leaving now, others will join the newsroom over time as we invest in new skills necessary to grow in the future."
The Chicago Sun-Times and Crain's Chicago Business last week reported that the Tribune cuts would be far more severe.
Kern, in his note, said the moves were guided by what he and other editors believe the business will sustain while also supporting the goal of digital growth as the Chicago market's top news and information source.
"That means we must concentrate our resources and energies on covering the Chicago area better than anyone else" across all platforms, Kern wrote, adding that the Tribune is looking to expand its local news and digital operations, as well as establishing a watchdog unit to build on consumer and investigative coverage.
Staff reductions and other cost-cutting measures have become commonplace across the media business nationwide. E.W. Scripps Co. folded Denver's Rocky Mountain News and Hearst Corp. discontinued print publication of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, turning it into an online-only entity. The two major daily papers in Detroit have reduced the frequency of home delivery.
Just last week, Sun-Times Media Group, the parent of the Chicago Sun-Times and dozens of suburban publications, cut 140 non-union management and staff positions as part of a company-wide effort to reduce overall compensation costs by 15 percent.
Like Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December to manage the massive debt taken on in going private in late 2007, Sun-Times Media Group filed for Chapter 11 protection last month to improve its cost structure and stabilize operations.
These reductions are just the latest at the Chicago Tribune, which was said to have around 670 newsroom positions 3.5 years ago. That's about the time the newspaper industry's revenue peaked according to statistics from the Newspaper Association of America.
Kern and Chicago Tribune Media Group President, Publisher and Chief Executive Tony Hunter said in an interview last week that the paper's advertising revenue is off more than 20 percent so far in 2009 and they were operating on the assumption that would not change this year.
(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)