The (Allentown) Morning Call, July 22

Morning Call to close two offices, trim newsroom by 25%

By Tim Darragh | Of The Morning Call

The (Allentown) Morning Call will close two bureaus and consolidate its Northampton County offices, eliminate three daily editions and cut nearly a quarter of its newsroom positions as the newspaper tries to remake itself in a bruising economy.

''In this environment, we had to make some really tough trade-offs,'' Timothy R. Kennedy, publisher, president and chief executive officer, said in an interview Monday, July 21, after announcing the plan in a memorandum to employees.

The job cuts, closings and other cost-cutting measures are in response to reductions in most categories of advertising, the lifeblood of a newspaper. Kennedy said classified advertising in particular has plunged, with help wanted and real estate advertising down 20 percent.

''When it goes south, the whole business model goes with it,'' Kennedy said.

To cut costs, the newspaper will eliminate an unprecedented 35-40 positions in the newsroom, mainly by involuntary job cuts. The newspaper has 166 editorial positions, so the job cuts could equal nearly 25 percent of the staff. Affected employees will receive a pension benefit equal to one week of pay for every six months of employment at The Morning Call.

Kennedy's memo called the cuts painful, but he added that the newspaper still will have the largest news-gathering staff in the Lehigh Valley.

The reductions, he said, were calculated to preserve The Morning Call's strength as a presence on the Web and a provider of unique, local news. Online readership grew 14.2 percent last year and is expected to grow 16 percent this year -- up to 159 million page views. In addition, he said, the newspaper has focused its coverage based on reader feedback, which has resulted in a 7 percent jump in readership.

Officials at Tribune Co. corporate headquarters in Chicago did not return a message seeking comment.

The Morning Call's footprint will shrink, too. The Lehighton office, opened in 1935, and Quakertown office, opened in 1965, will be closed. The Easton and Bethlehem offices will be combined into one. Final plans, including selecting the Northampton County office to remain open, are pending.

Capitol bureaus in Harrisburg and Washington, D.C., will remain open.

The five zoned daily editions of the newspaper, which have existed since 1981, will be reduced to two.

Kennedy said by using technology and deploying reporters from the main office, the newspaper will be able to cover big stories in Carbon/Schuylkill and Bucks/Montgomery counties, where offices are closing.

Newspapers across the United States have been slashing newsroom staffs in recent weeks. The Morning Call and its sister newspapers in the Tribune chain, including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, also are cutting pages and reducing the space devoted to news.

Newspaper analyst John Morton said Tribune's moves reflect the average 15 percent drop in advertising nationwide, but are more ''dramatic'' than at other newspapers. Tribune also has a heavy debt load that it took on when developer Sam Zell bought the company in December, he noted.

Morton questioned the wisdom of cutting news staff as newspapers move to the Web. ''At a time when the newspaper industry is pinning its future on a successful transition to the Internet, the worst thing a newspaper can do is to diminish the news by providing less news,'' he said.

Still, he acknowledged that Tribune's plan to redesign and rethink its newspapers from top to bottom ''may be a good thing'' in helping readers get the information they want.

The redesigned Morning Call will debut Monday. It will feature new columns as well as a new look.

Vice President and Editor Ardith Hilliard mourned the coming cutbacks.

''Job loss, no matter what the context, is tough and sad,'' she said. ''Knowing the challenging realities of our business is little comfort when saying goodbye to those who have worked by our side for years.''

Despite the deep cut in the newsroom, Hilliard pledged that the remaining staff will continue to accept ''the responsibility of engineering journalism's future.''

''Readers are depending on us for this, and we must succeed because guarding their interests is our core purpose,'' she said. ''This newsroom is up to the challenge. That is why The Morning Call will continue to be a leader in creating new and exciting ways of serving its communities now and well into the future.''

The Morning Call has an average weekday circulation of 108,797, and Sunday circulation of 140,789, according to reports by the Audit Bureau of Circulation for the six-month period ending March 31.

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