By: E&P Staff The Chicago Sun-Times has opened negotiations with the Chicago Newspaper Guild seeking a new round of staff cuts, Editor in Chief Michael Cooke said in a memo to employees Wednesday.
"While our circulation, in context, continues to be acceptable, advertising revenues are awful," Cooke said. "So again we are left with no choice but to cut our costs to try to match the reduced income."
He said the paper had presented union representatives a "package of proposed cuts." Cooke did not disclose the number of reductions the Sun-Times is seeking, but said its target had been reduced through recent attrition.
He said he hoped to have something to announce by the end of next week.
"To state the obvious: this is awful," he wrote.
Earlier this year, the Sun-Times reduced staff by about 40 with a mix of buyouts and layoffs. The staff reduction, which also took place at sibling papers throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, was part of parent Sun-Times Media Group's plan to cut expenses by $50 million by mid-2008.
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