CHICAGO, IL (July 8, 2008) – In the fourth round of job cutbacks since 2005, the Chicago Tribune announced that 80 more positions will be cut from its newsroom staff by the end of August.
Three years ago the Tribune's newsroom employed as many as 670 people; this round of cuts will eliminate jobs from the 578 who work there now.
In addition to the newsroom cuts, there will be jobs eliminated in other departments (which the paper did not specify), and the number of news pages the Tribune prints will be reduced by 13 to 14 percent.
A Chicago Tribune spokesperson said that some newsroom positions have been left open for months after employees retired or quit, so that the number of staffers who will actually be hit by the fourth round of cutbacks is between 55 and 58 people.
An ongoing decline in print advertising revenue, which hasn't been offset by the slow increase in online advertising revenue, is being blamed for most of the economic conditions that the Tribune Co. says is forcing them to make company-wide cutbacks.
The announcement in Chicago is just the latest in a series of sweeping changes that are taking place across all Tribune Co. newspapers to better balance expenses and revenue. Last year the company was purchased by real estate mogul Sam Zell, who has instituted the cutbacks across Tribune Co. newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, The Hartford Courant, and the Baltimore Sun.
Zell purchased the Tribune Co. for $8.2 billion dollars in December and took it private, becoming the company's chief executive and chairman, while saddling it with billions of dollars in debt.
Since the purchase they have been trying to sell their ownership of the Major League Baseball team the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field. The company has also been exploring the possible sale of their headquarters building in Chicago and the Los Angeles Times' building in California.
The Tribune Co. also announced today that they are selling their 42.5 percent share of the online shopping Web site ShopLocal.com to Gannett Co. for around $22 million.
