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| Tribune Co.'s L.A. Times to cut 300 jobs |
| 2009-01-31 |
| Amidst parent Tribune Co.'s struggle to emerge from bankruptcy protection, the Los Angeles Times said Friday it is cutting 300 positions and will shrink the number of daily sections to four from five. The paper's publisher, Eddy Hartenstein, informed staff in a memo on Friday, explaining the cuts "are designed to help us deal with the economic realities of the day." "Not a day goes by that we don't give our readers the latest news and analysis on the deepening troubles of the U.S. economy," Hartenstein wrote. "The same challenges that face the companies we report about also are affecting us." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 I think the newspaper industry will closely track the fortunes of the cage bird breeding industry. My supermarket is giving away the (NY)Daily News, and there are piles of mouldering local papers in the lobbies of all the local apartment buildings I go into. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2009-01-31 11:20 |
| #4 Mrs. Besoeker and I discussed cancelling the Atlanta Constipation. Petsmart cage liners are an even greater expense and the bird really enjoys the sports section, so we retained the subscription but only until the bird dies. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-01-31 11:16 |
| #3 I just cancelled my local paper. I noticed last fall that I wasn't reading it much - mostly it went straight into the recycle bin, or piled up all week and then went into the bin. So I switched to Friday-Sunday delivery, since the TV section is in Saturday's edition and I calculated the delivery price for the 3 days was about the same as my going out and buying one each Saturday, when the aggravation factor was accounted for. As soon as I switched, the TV section got MUCH skimpier. I also found over the last 3 months that I don't have time to sit down and read the Sunday paper, and I honestly don't miss it. I miss the idea of reading the paper, but news delivery had changed so much in my lifetime that what I was used to for decades is no longer true. Now by the time I get home in the evening I already know the news, and I found TV listings on my cable company's website that even let me choose the channels I care about, and pops up with whatever's on according to the time I access it. Just don't need the paper anymore. It's sad, but my life has managed to go on surprisingly well without it. I don't know the answer for the newspapers. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-01-31 11:01 |
| #2 1. It's a start. 2. How about outsourcing to, say, India your entire management staff. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-01-31 08:33 |
| #1 Announcing layoffs on Friday is "buried" in the Saturday news is the most hackneyed PR ploy in the book. Most real businesses learned long ago not to eliminate jobs on Friday because the workers go home without answers to their questions (severance, optional arrangements etc) all weekend to stew and return Monday with their lawyers in tow. This underscores the ongoing buggy whip mentality of newspapers as businesses. |
| Posted by: regular joe 2009-01-31 08:11 |