Job Cuts for the Tribune

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Times will offer buyouts to up to 150 employees to offset declining circulation and advertising in the latest effort by parent company Tribune Co. to cut jobs ahead of its plan to go private in an $8.2 billion deal.

The buyouts would equal 3 percent to 5 percent of workers at the Times, Tribune's largest newspaper, publisher David Hiller wrote in a note to the staff.

"We also have to look at our staffing levels again, as painful as it is, and as many times as we have done it before," Hiller wrote. "The fact is we have to take actions to keep staffing in line with the revenue picture, which currently is falling in the core print business.
Other reduction plans include eliminating some positions, a voluntary four-day week for 80 percent of pay and cutting other currently open jobs, Hiller wrote.

Up to 70 jobs could be cut from the Times' news operations, which would bring the newsroom staff to roughly 850, the Times reported on its Web site. The news operation employed about 1,200 when Tribune bought the paper in 2000.