Layoffs ahead *

Zell's sent a memo to staff announcing staff reductions in the publishing group and corporate office: each newspaper will determine which reduction program (voluntary separation programs, involuntary layoffs, attrition and closing of open positions) will work best for their needs.

Most of the affected positions are in support service areas, such as finance, HR and technology. We are creating a flatter organizational structure, eliminating layers of personnel that inadvertently created bureaucracy. The result will be a streamlined culture that accelerates our decision making, and enables us to act quickly.

So, whoever goes in as lead editor at the LAT will have to cut the newsroom staff. (Cuts O'Shea didn't want to make.)

Tribune Co., struggling with declining revenue, today said it would cut staff by 400 to 500 people companywide, or around 2% of the Chicago-based media company's workforce. At the Los Angeles Times, 100 to 150 jobs will be eliminated, 40 to 50 in the newsroom, through a combination of attrition, voluntary buyouts and, if necessary, layoffs, Publisher David D. Hiller said in an interview this morning.

Read more here.

* No word yet on Newsday, but 45 (10 in the newsroom) at the Hartford Courant , 45 at the Baltimore Sun, 100 at the Chicago Tribune Media Group ( RedEye, Hoy, chicagotribune.com and others). Everyone that's going has to be out be March 31.

** Union leaders not surprised E&P