Despite Cuts, Tribune Vows to Keep Unit.Tribune Co. is pledging to keep its struggling Times Community News division going despite the sudden departure of two top TCN TCN Tetracycline TCN transparent content negotiation TCN Third Country National(s) TCN Topology Change Notification TCN Transportation Control Number TCN Train Communication Network TCN Transaction Control Number officials amid a companywide effort to stave off stave n. 1. A narrow strip of wood forming part of the sides of a barrel, tub, or similar structure. 2. A rung of a ladder or chair. 3. A staff or cudgel. 4. Music See staff1. falling revenues through an early retirement program and layoffs. A Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Morning daily newspaper. Established in 1881, it was purchased and incorporated in 1884 by Harrison Gray Otis (1837–1917) under The Times-Mirror Co. (the hyphen was later dropped from the name). affiliate that puts out local newspapers in the area, Times Community News recently lost the publisher and editor of three of its five publications as part of the Tribune's latest round of staff reductions. Publisher Judee Kendall and Editor John Francis John Francis may refer to:
But TCN General Manager Tom Johnson Tom Johnson may refer to:
"We have a full commitment to TCN," said Johnson, publisher of the division's two other newspapers, Costa Mesa's Daily Pilot and the Huntington Beach Huntington Beach, city (1990 pop. 181,519), Orange co., S Calif., on the Pacific coast, across from Santa Catalina Island, in an oil-producing area; inc. 1909. It manufactures aerospace vehicles, aircraft parts, optical instruments, and heat transfer equipment. Independent. While only the Daily Pilot is profitable, the other TCN papers are close to breaking even, Johnson said. "We've got a product in Newport Beach-Costa Mesa that is perfectly outstanding," he said. "(The Daily Pilot) is making enough money to make the entire operation of TCN profitable." A small part of Tribune's 26,000-strong workforce, Times Community News employs about 150 people. Besides one other staff position cut at the Glendale-Burbank-Foothill group of papers, a handful of other reductions were made within TCN, Johnson said. Part of Industry slump Slump A temporary fall in performance, often describing consistently falling security prices for several weeks or months. Though Tribune does not release financial information about individual business units, the Chicago-based company as a whole reported earnings per share of 19 cents for the first quarter ended March 31, compared with 31. cents for the like period a year ago. That's a reflection of the ongoing slump throughout the newspaper industry. The drop comes despite the fact that soon after Tribune acquired Times Mirror last year, there were numerous layoffs, including some within Times Community News. The Times also shut down its Our Times section --which produced 14 community news sections and employed about 125 people. Tribune recently lowered its second-quarter earnings projections and announced plans to further reduce its staff by 6 percent, or about 1,500 employees. The company expects to cut half of those positions, mainly within its publishing group, through a voluntary retirement program being offered to certain workers who are 50 or older. The remaining jobs are being eliminated through attrition Attrition The reduction in staff and employees in a company through normal means, such as retirement and resignation. This is natural in any business and industry. Notes: and layoffs. Citing a slowing demand for advertising, Times Publisher John Puerner told employees in a memo sent out June 14: "We're facing some of the most challenging market conditions we've seen in a decade." Noted Michael Beebe, an analyst with Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., or simply Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) is one of the world's largest global investment banks. Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869, and is headquartered in the Lower Manhattan area of New York City at 85 Broad Street. , which trades in Tribune stock: "The entire industry right now is going through a pretty dramatic revenue crunch (1) To process data. See number crunching. (2) To compress data. See data compression. 1. (jargon) crunch - To process, usually in a time-consuming or complicated way. ." He said the Times decision to pare back its community news section is not surprising. "The Los Angeles Times has historically had subpar sub·par adj. 1. Not measuring up to traditional standards of performance, value, or production. 2. Below par in a hole, round, or game of golf. margins relative to the industry; so part of the Tribune strategy in buying Times Mirror was their interest to drive margins higher by taking costs out," he said. Beebe believes news of the staff reductions can only help Tribune stock. "You fire people, your costs go down in a hurry," he said. Advertising decline slows The company last week reported that the decline in advertising sales within its publishing unit had slowed during the first three weeks of the month. Tribune stock, which had been hovering hov·er intr.v. hov·ered, hov·er·ing, hov·ers 1. To remain floating, suspended, or fluttering in the air: gulls hovering over the waves. 2. around the mid 40s in May, closed at $40.19 a share on June 20. The future of TCN depends on the L.A. Times, said Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman. "I would expect those are decisions that would get made at the local business-unit level," he said. "We give our newspapers, our newspaper publishers and our local business units a great deal of autonomy." Johnson said he has been assured by Times management "that once the current TCN papers are operating at the level they should, we'll look for other opportunities, whether through acquisition or start-up." Offers to buy TCN papers are not uncommon but Johnson said the Times isn't interested in giving up the. small publication group. "They are absolutely not for sale," he said. |
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