Sun-Times to keep 30 jobs at home

Union officials in Chicago said the Chicago Sun-Times has abandoned a plan to outsource copy editing and page layout work to Canada and India.

The plan to outsource 30 jobs announced in January had rattled The Newspaper Guild, which was braced for a fight, the Sun-Times said Friday.

Between January and this week, however, shareholders led an effort to overhaul the board at the Sun-Times Media Group and John Barron replaced Cyrus Freidheim as the newspaper’s publisher. Don Hayner took over from Michael Cooke as editor of the scrappy tabloid newspaper.

Their leadership took a fresh look. They get a 10 on my scorecard today, said Thomas Thibeault, executive director of the Chicago Newspaper Guild.

That doesn’t mean problems are over, he said.

On Thursday, Sun-Times Media said it had settled a $41.8 million claim by CanWest Global Communications for $26.4 million, $4.6 million of which will be paid by an unnamed party, the newspaper said.