Latest Cuts at L.A. Times Slim Ed. Staff by 17%

Working at the Los Angeles Times could be seen as a health hazard. Between oft-occurring layoffs, secret changes in editorial staff and planning, too much turnover among top editorial positions in too few years, and occasional public frays between management and owners, the stress level must be unbearable. Now, after the latest round of cuts, there will be significantly fewer employees to endure the anxiety.

The paper will cut 250 positions, or about 8 percent of the total workforce. That includes 150 editorial jobs, or about 17 percent of the newsroom staff, both from print and online, writes MediaPost.

The print and online groups are being consolidated into a single editorial department. In a letter to employees, editor Russ Stanton wrote, “You all know the paradox we find ourselves in: Thanks to the internet, we have more readers for our great journalism than at any time in our history. But also thanks to the internet, our advertisers have more choices, and we have less money.” The economic slowdown has worsened an already difficult situation, he wrote.

The Los Angeles Times itself will also be trimmed. As reported earlier this summer, Tribune Co. is slicing editorial from all its papers due to a need to trim its enormous debt of $12.8 billion - about two-thirds of which was incurred in the transaction that took the company private this year. The L.A. Times print edition will be cut by 15 percent per week, with the ultimate goal of reaching a 50-50 ratio between reporting and advertising.

Tribune Co.’s new owner Sam Zell will need to be able to make about $1 billion in payments on the debt in 2008; newspaper analysts say the possibility of default is very real, particularly given the steep decline in revenues.