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Tribune Co. Faces Job Cuts Protest Reductions Hurt Watchdog Journalism, Anti-Bush Group Says

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 December 2005, 12:00 CST

By Katharine Q. Seelye

Public demonstrations against a newspaper's editorial views are not uncommon. But it is highly unusual for anyone to protest a newspaper's internal business decisions.

Nonetheless, that is what is happening these days to Tribune Co., the Chicago-based owner of some major daily newspapers in the United States: The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Hartford Courant in Connecticut, The Orlando Sentinel in Florida, Newsday on Long Island, New York, and The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The company has cut its work force by 4 percent, or 900 jobs, accounting for nearly half the estimated 2,000 jobs lost in the entire industry this year.

These cuts have caught the attention of MoveOn Media Action, an offshoot of MoveOn.org, the liberal activist group that has worked against President George W. Bush, whose poll numbers have fallen with the reporting of difficulties in Iraq and other problems. MoveOn Media Action says the cuts at the Tribune newspapers undermine important watchdog journalism.

The organization's campaign has included public demonstrations as well as petition drives in Tribune cities to gather signatures protesting the job cuts.

MoveOn attended a newspaper investor conference in New York this month and gave petitions, with 45,000 signatures, to an aide to Dennis FitzSimons, chairman and chief executive of Tribune Co. But they were unable to engage FitzSimons in a discussion.

So they sent him an e-mail message.

Now FitzSimons has sent a message back.

He was far less specific about the company's financial situation than he was at the investor conference. But he disputed the group's assertion that the cuts had hurt the Tribune newspapers.

"Outstanding journalism isn't just about staffing levels," he wrote, saying talent was more important than mere numbers.

"Tribune's commitment to quality journalism and to serving the readers and advertisers of its local communities hasn't changed one bit," he added. "But the media environment is changing, and we have to change with it."

"Tribune's edge is its unique ability to cover its local communities like no one else can," he wrote. "In order to keep that edge, we have to remain financially strong."

Tribune Co. is in the same boat as many newspaper companies: Profits are relatively high, but costs are up and the stock price is down.

The industry had an average profit margin last year of 20 percent, double the average of the Fortune 500. But investors are pessimistic because of sluggish advertising revenues, stagnant circulation, rising costs especially for newsprint and employee benefits and the migration of readers and advertisers to the Internet.

Still, the protesters said Tribune Co. deserved to be singled out.

"Nobody in the newspaper industry has actively undermined quality journalism more than the Tribune Co.," said Adam Green, a spokesman for MoveOn Media Action.

He said the campaign against Tribune would continue and would "serve as a lesson for the entire industry the right way to gain readers is to invest in strong watchdog journalism, not to neuter the watchdog by stretching newspaper staff too thin."

Source: International Herald Tribune

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