By: E&P Staff Details emerged today regarding Tribune Co. President Jack Fuller's statement yesterday about impending staff cuts. The company plans to trim 200 jobs from its publishing group, or roughly 1% of the 20,000 jobs in that division, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The Newspaper Guild confirmed that Tribune extended buyout packages to 63 employees at The Sun of Baltimore, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Management said they were willing to accept at least 18 of the buyouts, which consist of one week's salary for every six months of service, with a cap of 52 weeks of payments.
Yesterday Fuller announced in a memo that the company was "reducing expenses across the publishing group through a series of cost saving initiatives" and that they were taking these measures because "revenue growth at some of [its] newspapers has not materialized as fast as originally planned."
Overall, the company reported that advertising revenue for the month of May was up 3.2%. But the company also revised its revenue growth for the year to 4%, down from the originally projected 6%.
It is widely anticipated that the Times Mirror properties, which the Tribune Co. acquired in 2000, will feel the brunt of the cuts. Since the acquisition, the Tribune Co. shaved off 10 points from its profit margin, something the company has been trying to regain, John Morton, president of Morton Research, told E&P earlier today. Another reason for the cutbacks could be because of Hoy and Red Eye, new initiatives that are most likely losing money.
The last time the Tribune Co. reduced staff was in the summer of 2001. At that time, they cut 1,700 jobs through layoffs and voluntary retirements, according to the Chicago Tribune.
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