Tribune Starts Another Round Of Job Cuts

Maybe Sam Zell doesn’t see the people who put out the newspapers he plans to invest in as assets or maybe it’s all on management — although both certainly seem willing to use them as part of the complicated buyout plan. Tribune’s disappointing revenues reported last Thursday (a day late) are the hook for the latest round of cuts at the LA Times and the Chicago Tribune. According to reports in each paper, this round is expected to start with voluntary buyouts. The Tribune is slated to lose about 100 staffers while the LAT will lose about 150 with some 70 of those coming from the newsroom, roughly 7.6 percent of the newsroom staff. No talk this time — so far, at least — of resources being diverted to online.

LAT: “Nothing in Tribune’s financial results this week alleviated concerns about the decline in revenue. The company’s operating cash flow for the first quarter of 2007 was down 12% to $238 million from $271 million in the same period last year, while operating profit declined 16% to $181 million from $217 million.”

Tribune: “That deal has increased pressure on Tribune to improve results, or at least maintain last year’s level of cash flow, amid a slump in advertising and circulation revenue as readers defect to the Internet. But Thursday’s numbers showed that Tribune’s financial results continued to erode in the first quarter, and analysts said there was no evidence the company has hit bottom. … Cash flow is what companies use to pay down debt.”

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