Another wave of newspaper publishers is pushing ahead with plans that will shuffle or reduce their staffs.New York Times Co. finalized its plans to shut down the Web site of sister paper International Herald Tribune and begin hosting news from the IHT on a co-branded "global edition" of NYTimes.com. The Times said the closure of the IHT site wasn't a cost-cutting move, although as part of the change the company will have to "reassign or relocate" IHT.com staffers, a spokeswoman for the IHT said.
The IHT was incurring losses when the Times purchased the 50% stake it didn't already own in the Paris-based paper from the Washington Post Co. in 2003, although a Times spokeswoman said its performance has "improved significantly" since then.
Elsewhere, the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday said it laid off 10 employees after falling short of the more than 90 buyouts it was seeking. The 90-plus positions, about 25 of which came from the newsroom, comprise about 5% of the Hearst Corp. paper's staff. Meantime the publisher of the Cleveland Plain Dealer said Tuesday that the paper plans to cut 16% of its unionized newsroom jobs, or 38 positions, by year end.
Newspaper publishers have slashed jobs this year as the worsening global economy has exacerbated revenue declines from the shift of readers and advertisers to the Web. Freedom Communications Inc., publisher of the Orange County Register in California, said earlier this week that it may have violated financial terms on its debt. The company said it is in talks with its lenders. Freedom also said it tapped its credit line in response to recent financial turmoil.
Sam Zell, chairman of another debt-squeezed publisher, Tribune Co., gave a noncommittal response in an interview about whether the company will stay in compliance with its nearly $13 billion in borrowings. Tribune, publisher of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, expects to sell its Chicago Cubs baseball team by year end, Mr. Zell said in the CNBC interview.
The latest developments come after the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., finalized cost-cutting moves that will eliminate at least 200 full-time jobs through buyouts. The union representing the paper's truck drivers late Tuesday ratified a new contract.
Advance Publications Inc. owns the Star-Ledger and the Plain Dealer.
