Bloodletting: Tribune Co. Cuts 700 Publishing Jobs
By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 20, 2013 6:55PM
Tribune Co. announced a sweeping reorganization of its publishing assets Wednesday by cutting 700 jobs across the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and six other daily newspapers while rounding its digital media, advertising, marketing and manufacturing operations under common leadership.
The move has been expected for months ever since Tribune Co. announced it was separating its publishing assets into a separate company in July. Reports surfaced in September that Tribune Co. CEO Peter Liguori mandated $100 million in budget cuts in September. Liguori said in a memo announcing the cuts:
"Unfortunately, organizing around functional lines rather than maintain what we’re doing locally, there is going to be some staff reductions. We are not going to be reducing any of our frontline reporters. Over time there will be some small reductions on the editorial side, but we want to maintain our best-in-class local journalism."
As part of the restructuring a new unit of Tribune Publishing called Tribune Digital will be headed by Bill Adee, currently vice president of digital operations at the Chicago Tribune. Chicago media reporter Rob Feder writes other changes include Bob Fleck, senior vice president, advertising for Chicago Tribune, will become executive vice president of advertising for Tribune Publishing; Joseph Schlitz, senior vice president of marketing and targeted media for Chicago Tribune, will become senior vice president, marketing and targeted media for Tribune Publishing; Russ Newton, senior vice president/operations and home delivery for Los Angeles Times Media, will become senior vice president of manufacturing for Tribune Publishing; and Bill Nagel, executive vice president, business services at the Los Angeles Times, will become executive vice president of marketing for Tribune Publishing.
The changes are expected to take effect Jan. 1.