MERRILLVILLE | As many as 20 employees of The Post-Tribune are expected to lose their jobs as part of a Sun-Times Media Group belt-tightening, sources said Friday.
Following the lead of its sister newspapers, the Merrillville-based newspaper is eliminating jobs to help cut $50 million from the corporate budget, according to Sun-Times Media Group spokeswoman Tammy Chase.
Post-Tribune management announced Thursday it plans to eliminate nine newsroom positions. A newsroom management position previously was cut.
Two positions also will be cut at the weekly Lake County Star in Crown Point, according to sources.
Post-Tribune news staff members were told of the cuts Thursday, according to Lori Caldwell, president of Gary Newspaper Guild Local 14. She said eight union positions and one nonunion position in the newsroom are to be cut. She also said two nonunion advertising positions are being eliminated.
Sources familiar with the cutback plan said some positions in the Post-Tribune's distribution department also will be eliminated taking the total lost positions to 20.
The union is planning to meet with company representatives Tuesday in hopes of "minimizing" the impact of the cuts, Caldwell said. According to the labor agreement, the newspaper's management and the guild have a two-week negotiation period to determine possible ways to cut expenses to help ease the impact of the layoffs.
"Our unit has 53 union positions," Caldwell said. "Eight others (positions) are open that won't be filled. Cutting another eight would make it 13 managers to 45 (guild members). I think it's a little top-heavy."
Neither Post-Tribune Publisher Murdoch Davis nor Executive Editor Paulette Haddix could be reached for comment.
Hollinger International, which changed its name to the Sun-Times Media Group in July 2006, bought the Post-Tribune from Knight Ridder Inc. in 1998.
The Sun-Times Media Group includes the Chicago Sun-Times, Pioneer Press, SouthtownStar, Naperville Sun, Post-Tribune and newspapers in Joliet, Aurora, Elgin and Waukegan. In December, the company informed the Chicago Newspaper Guild it planned to cut 32 Sun-Times newsroom jobs in January.
The action at the Post-Tribune is part of the cost-cutting program announced Dec. 14, said Chase. She said she did not have details of nonunion positions being eliminated.
"This all goes back to Conrad Black and David Radner's exorbitant ways and spending problems," Caldwell said. "They want to solve their tax problems on the backs of the workers. They could start eliminating the managers. I'd be fully in support of that."
Thursday, the Chicago Sun-Times laid off three members of its editorial board, an assistant managing editor and its Sunday section editor. The newspaper's business editor resigned. On Friday, an agreement was reached that could spare further employee cuts by offering buyouts to age-eligible workers.
The company also reportedly told the Chicago Newspaper Guild it would cut jobs at its suburban newspapers including the Lake County (Illinois) News-Sun, and 11 editorial positions from the Pioneer Press chain of weeklies.
The Tinley Park-based SouthtownStar, the result of November's consolidation of the twice-weekly Star and the Daily Southtown, cut staff last week in the newspaper's advertising department. A reduction in the news staff took place at the time of the merger.
