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L.A. Times shedding 250 jobs

03.07.2008 21:01 Arts - Source: cbc.ca

The Los Angeles Times will cut 250 jobs, including 150 in its editorial departments, the paper's editor has announced.

The paper itself will also shrink: A makeover this fall will result in 15 per cent fewer pages and shorter news stories, editor Russ Stanton said.

''The number one reason that people cancel the L.A. Times is, they tell us, they don't have enough time to read the paper that we give them every day,'' Stanton said Wednesday.

''We're going to be more picky about the stories we choose to write long, and a lot more picky about the ones we write shorter.''

He said layoffs were necessary because of a decline in ad sales that is worsening because of falling real estate prices in U.S. cities.

The Times also plans to merge its web and print publishing operations.

Like many U.S. newspapers, the Times has seen circulation fall as more readers turn to the internet for their news. It is the fourth most-read newspaper in the U.S. according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, but circulation was down 5.1 per cent in March, to 773,884, from a year earlier.

Tribune Co., the Chicago-based owner of the Times, has a heavy debt load from buying the paper and continues to lose money on its other media interests.

This is the second round of layoffs at the Times under Tribune Co. ownership. The paper, which had editorial staff of 1,200 in 2000, will have only 700 editorial jobs by Labour Day.

Stanton declined to say which sections would be cut, but he said the A section, containing foreign, national and top local stories, will get larger.

Last month, the paper announced it would also stop publishing its money-losing monthly magazine.

Tribune Co. has recently made cuts at its newspapers in Baltimore, Chicago and Hartford, Conn., as well as TV station KTLA in Los Angeles, and said it may consider selling its Chicago headquarters building.

In May, Tribune Co. said first-quarter advertising revenue from the L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday and other media interests had declined 15 per cent from the previous year.

Other U.S. newspapers that have recently announced layoffs include the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which will lay off about 130 employees, and The Tampa Tribune, which will cut 21 jobs.

With files from the Associated Press

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