Honey, I'm Shrinking the Tribune Papers

Publisher Sam Zell has announced he'll quickly slash pages and more editorial jobs to offset huge debts and  a larger-than-anticipated decline in advertising revenue at his newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. An 80-page edition of the Tribune could be sliced to 48 pages, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. The papers have already lost a significant number of staffers to buyouts.

The cuts will force remaining journalists in the big-city news operations to catch up to the higher productivity of journalists in the company's smaller market newspapers, according to the firm's chief operating officer. “When you get into the individuals, you find you can eliminate a fair number of people without eliminating much content,” he said. (More Los Angeles Times stories.)