Chicago Tribune reduces newsroom staff (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Chicago Tribune ^ | April 22, 2009 | Phil Rosenthal

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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.

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[Chode]

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http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=104555
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[abb]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29509776/site/14081545
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http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/business/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003965165
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[Godwin1]

This agenda-driven rag needs no reporters. All it needs is a fax machine and a rewrite man to make DNC,CAIR,ACLU,NAACP,LA RAZA AND PLANNED PARENTHOOD press releases appear like news stories. They work from liberal templates, redoing the same stories again and again. I can’t remember the last time they broke a real story.

[Malesherbes]

Not to worry. There will no noticeable change in the quality of the newspaper.

[abb]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i888016761f9ec824f862a5c265de605c
Drama at GE shareholders meeting
‘Open hostility’ toward execs over MSNBC’s ‘leftward tilt’

[ken5050]

Wolff is flat wrong. 85% of newspapers won’t survive the next 18 months..

[abb]

There will be some newspapers that will survive. Smaller towns, weeklies, etc.

But the major metro newspapers are dead men walking.

[Milhous]

Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder, just told the newies what they need to do RIGHT NOW POST HASTE TODAY to survive. If comments serve as any indicator most chose to simply ridicule Wales’ suggestions.

[abb]

Early tomorrow, I’m traveling to my sister’s in San Augustine, Texas. This will be my third trip to the annual book sale at the Lufkin, TX library. She’s been going to those things for years.

Anyway, when I went to my first one two years ago, I was astounded to see several sets of encyclopaedia for sale. World Book, Colliers, all relatively new - $5.00/set. No one uses them any more.

That made quite an impact on me.

[Milhous]

Also most entertaining to see all the hate and discontent come gushing up during the “save our fishwrap” congressional hearings. LOL. The newsies couldn't even get an “Amen!” out of Dems for slaying a dragon called Nixon. ROTFL.

[abb]

Check out the comments at the WaPo story.

[Borges]

The Tribune broke the Blagoevich story.

[Milhous]

The Tribune broke the Blagoevich story.

The Tribune's Blago bomb certainly broke up an ongoing covert FBI investigation into Illinois political corruption before Obama got implicated. Recall how the reportedly Republican Chicago Tribune actually did a political hit job on Republican Jack Ryan who hoped to succeed retiring Republican Peter Fitzgerald in the Senate. Obama ultimately got Fitzgerald's Senate seat paving the way for the Obamanation.

[RayChuang88]

I think what we'll see are super regional newspapers replace a newspaper for each town. For example, in the San Francisco Bay Area, we could see all the newspapers mashed down to (at most!) four newspapers, one serving the East Bay, one serving Marin County, one serving San Francisco and the San Francisco Peninsula, and one serving Santa Clara County.

[KeyLargo]

Bad Week for Chicago JournalistsTribune cuts another 53 jobs

By BJ LUTZ and ASSOCIATED PRESS

Updated 3:00 PM CDT, Wed, Apr 22, 2009
Related Topics:Tribune Company

BJ Lutz

Another round of job cuts leaves the Chicago Tribune with about 430 employees.

Just days after the Chicago Sun-Times lost 140 workers in its latest round of layoffs, the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday added to the carnage.

Tribune’s Editor, Gerould Kern, annouced Wednesday in a note to employees that the newspaper will cut 53 jobs as part of a newspaper reorganization.

That leaves the newspaper with a staff of about 430. About a dozen jobs were lost at the Trib in December, and another 20 were eliminated in February.

The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rosenthalnoted in a column last August that cuts made that month were the paper’s fourth since 2005.

Like other newspapers, the Tribune is suffering through a downturn in advertising revenue due to both a sour economy and a movement toward the Internet.

As it tries to remake itself, the newspaper said it planned to focus its coverage more narrowly on the Chicago area and would expand its local news operation.

Kern’s memo indicates the newspaper’s digital staff also will grow and a new watchdog unit will increase its consumer and investigative coverage. A new production department will combine copy editing, page design and photo editing.
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* What Newspapers Will Die in 2009?

According to Crain’s Chicago Business, among those who lost their jobs Wednesday: business reporters Joshua Boak, Eric Benderoff and Susan Diesenhouse; breaking news reporter James P. Miller; photographers Candice C. Cusic, and David Trotman-Wilkins; assistant features editor and writer of the Tribune’s “Recession Diaries” blog Lou Carlozo and reporter Robert K. Elder; Schaumburg deputy bureau chief William Grady; house and homes editor Elaine Matsushita; assistant editor Suzanne Cosgrove; writer Elizabeth Botts, and sports reporter John Mullin.

Both of Chicago’s largest newspapers have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Chicago Tribune did so last December, with the Chicago Sun-Times following nearly four months later.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/business/chicago-tribune-sun-times-layoffs-042209.html/ NBC Chicago

[Landru]

"Wednesday afternoon good news."

Or, Thursday morning.
Either works for me. :^)

[Landru]

"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."

Klickity-klack goes their stick in the fence as they whistle post the graveyard. ;^)

[Borges]

The Tribune is actually still profitable. Zell just leveraged his buyout so heavily that he acquired a ton of debt. Included in this layoff was an Art Critic that had been there for almost 40 years. Hey Sam, having fun turning a Chicago historical artifact into a shell of its former self!