The Morning Call will end publication of Chronicle Newspapers, its chain of 11 weekly community papers, as part of cost-cutting measures that include layoffs in other departments, officials said Thursday.
The newspaper will permanently lay off about 5 percent of its workers, spokeswoman Vicki Mayk said. That amounts to almost 50 people based on The Morning Call's employment of 950.
he paper, one of the Lehigh Valley's 30 largest employers, also eliminated an unspecified number of other jobs through voluntary retirements and leaving open jobs unfilled.
The cuts are part of a companywide belt-tightening at Tribune Co. of Chicago. Tribune owns The Morning Call, the Lehigh Valley's largest newspaper, as well as other daily papers and television stations across the country.
The Chronicles account for most of the layoffs. The weeklies' 32 employees were informed Thursday that their jobs would be eliminated. Gerald Brahm, managing editor of the Chronicles, declined to comment. The papers will publish their last editions Dec. 23.
The Morning Call launched the Chronicles in March 2003. The weekly papers, which covered Lehigh and Northampton counties and Phillipsburg, were intended to add a complementary layer of local coverage to The Morning Call's daily newspaper. They were written and edited by a staff separate from The Morning Call's newsroom.
''The decision to eliminate the Chronicles was one of a number of decisions made to reduce overall expenses in preparing the 2006 budget,'' Mayk said. ''Although we had received favorable feedback about the Chronicles since they were introduced, they didn't generate enough revenue to justify continuing them.''
Editor Ardith Hilliard told news employees at a Thursday morning staff meeting that the newsroom would lose 20 positions through retirements and leaving positions unfilled. That represents 10 percent of the editorial staff. There were no newsroom layoffs.
Hilliard said the cuts were made to bring The Morning Call in line with budget targets set by Tribune. Officials tried to avoid steps that would significantly change the paper, or reduce the amount and quality of news coverage, she added.
In a memo to employees, Thomas Brown, chief financial officer of The Morning Call, said the paper ''is positioned to meet the changes in the media market.''
''Our readership continues to grow because we produce a dynamic product that responds to the needs of our audience,'' Brown said.
Newspapers across the country are cutting costs – and, often, jobs – as they struggle to deal with an uncertain advertising climate and new challenges from other information sources. Those competitors include cable TV and Internet news sites. Paid circulation is declining throughout the industry.
''The fragmenting media marketplace means everyone is getting a smaller piece of the audience,'' Brown wrote. ''That fragmentation means that we must find ways to become even more efficient and customer-focused as we look toward the future.''
The Orlando Sentinel, another Tribune paper, eliminated 33 open jobs and cut 21 workers Tuesday.
Other Tribune papers recently implementing layoffs or buyouts include the flagship Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Hartford Courant, the Baltimore Sun and Newsday of Long Island, N.Y.
The Tribune plans to cut as many as 100 employees in all departments, and the Times is eliminating about 85 newsroom positions.
Among non-Tribune papers, The New York Times Co. bought out 115 workers this fall in its New England operations, which include the Boston Globe.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, owned by Lee Enterprises, bought out 130 workers this fall, cutting its newsroom staff by 12 percent. And the San Jose Mercury News, owned by Knight-Ridder, revealed plans in September to cut 56 jobs – 17 percent of the paper's newsroom staff.
Jack Lule, a journalism professor at Lehigh University, believes the cutback trend signals a ''death spiral'' for newspapers. Fewer editorial staffers means fewer stories, giving readers less of the local coverage that motivates them to read in the first place, he said.
''It's such a shortsighted way to go about doing your business, to cut out the heart of your business,'' Lule said.
At Thursday morning's newsroom meeting, Hilliard and Managing Editor David Erdman thanked the paper's staff for its commitment. ''I am confident that we are going to come out of this very strongly,'' Hilliard said.
The Morning Call also cut at least 22 jobs in June 2004, in what were described as the first layoffs in the company's history.
Susan Hunt, who served as the paper's publisher for more than four years, resigned last month. Hunt said her departure was not motivated by Tribune cost-cutting.
A successor is expected to be named early next year.
