'Boston Globe' Shuts Baghdad Office, Others Face Foreign Bureau Cuts

By: Joe Strupp Budget constraints that have been reducing newsroom staffs nationwide during the past year are now hitting a number of foreign bureaus, with The Boston Globe closing its Baghdad operation and two of Tribune Co.'s top papers weathering foreign office shutdowns.

Martin Baron, editor of The Globe, said the paper had maintained a room at the Hamra Hotel in Baghdad, but will no longer keep it staffed or financed. While no reporter had worked out of the hotel room on a full-time basis for six months, a driver and translator, as well as security protection, had been kept on staff. "We had maintained a hotel room and infrastructure for periodic visits," Baron said. "We are no longer maintaining that and we are closing that infrastructure. We are giving up the entire apparatus."

Baron would not say if the paper had a reporter elsewhere in Iraq or how much savings would result from shutting the hotel operation. But he confirmed the shutdown was based on cost-cutting needs. "We can't afford to maintain the security," he said. "The Iraq bureau was never intended to be a permanent bureau."

The Globe will continue to operate its four other foreign outlets in Berlin, Colombia, South Africa and Jerusalem. The paper also has a foreign affairs reporter based in Washington, D.C.

The Sun of Baltimore and Newsday of Melville, N.Y., both owned by Tribune Co., are facing overseas cutbacks, according to sources.

Newsday, which has four overseas bureaus - in Beirut, Islamabad, Beijing, and Johannesburg - has not staffed the Johannesburg and Beijing bureaus in more than a year, says one source. The paper has an office in Baghdad with several support staffers, but has not had a reporter there since December. Newsday also covers Mexico from its New York offices, having shut its Mexico City bureau at the end of 2005.

In addition, Newsday's Beijing bureau, which dates back more than 30 years, is expected to be closed permanently if a proposal being discussed is approved. "It is on the chopping block," said one high-ranking Newsday staffer who requested anonymity and blamed the likely shutdown on Tribune cost-cutting demands.

Newsday Editor John Mancini declined to comment on specific changes, saying only "there have been ongoing discussions for some time to better coordinate Tribune foreign efforts."

At The Sun, meanwhile, foreign cuts have already struck. The paper closed its Beijing and London bureaus at the end of 2005, according to Foreign Editor Robert Ruby, who said the correspondents involved were reassigned to the paper's Baltimore newsroom. He said the London bureau had operated since 1924. "It had been in various locations and most recently operated in a house the paper had owned," Ruby said, adding that the house would be sold.

The cutbacks leave the Sun with just three foreign bureaus, in Johannesburg, Moscow and Jerusalem, with one staffer in each. When asked about rumors that further cuts would be affecting those outlets, Ruby declined comment.

Sun Editor Tim Franklin said no other cuts were planned, but admitted that Tribune officials were reviewing ideas to consolidate coverage.

"There have been discussions going on for the past few months within Tribune of better coordinating international coverage among the Tribune papers and having more effective foreign operations," Franklin said. "But nothing has been decided. We still have three foreign bureaus and they are producing great stuff."

Gary Weitman, Tribune vice president of corporate communications, also said no decisions had been made about further foreign cuts at any of the company's newspapers. But he admitted that discussions were taking place about how to "combine [foreign] coverage as best we can....There have been discussions across Tribune publishing and all of our newspapers about how to better coordinate our foreign coverage," he said. "But it is a work in progress."