Chicago Tribune and LA Times publisher looking to cut content, staff

09 June 2008

The Tribune Company, owner of such newspapers as The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times, has recently announced plans to reduce the number of news pages in its publications and the journalists that produce them.

With the increasing penetration of the Internet and proliferation of news sites on the Web, many traditional newspapers are increasingly finding it difficult to make ends meet. Such institutions have tried many things to turn things around - jazzing up appearances, pruning staff and content, and developing online versions of themselves. The Tribune Company is only the latest publishing entity to adopt this route.

Chairman Sam Zell and chief operating officer Randy Michaels said they would trim 500 pages of news each week from the company's dozen papers and aim for slimmer publications with pages - excluding classified advertising and special ad sections - split halfway between news content and advertisements.

Speaking to analysts, Michaels said the papers must be "right sized" to cut expenses and give readers more of what they say they want. The changes will be completed by the end of September.

Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman said Newsday is not part of the initiative. The paper's $650-million sale to Cablevision is expected to close between 1 July and 30 September.

The company said that selling control of Newsday, its New York paper, and the auction for Wrigley Field and the Chicago Cubs ball club, for which potential bidders will receive the long-awaited financial data within days and submit indications of interest next month, should take care of its big bills due this year and next.