Los Angeles Times to Reduce Its Work Force by 700 in 1995

Faced with rising newsprint costs, flat first-half revenue and an uncertain Southern California economy, the Los Angeles Times is intensifying cost-cutting efforts and will reduce the company’s work force by about 700 positions in 1995, Times Publisher Richard T. Schlosberg III said Tuesday.

The newspaper has already eliminated 230 of those jobs, Schlosberg said in a letter to be distributed to employees today. The remaining positions will be eliminated through attrition, voluntary methods and involuntary terminations, he said.

The paper’s staff will total about 5,800 by the end of 1995, he said.

Schlosberg told a group of Times managers that between 130 and 160 editorial positions will be included in the remaining staff reductions at the paper. But he emphasized that even with those reductions, The Times will have one of the largest editorial departments of any U.S. newspaper, with a staff of more than 1,100.

Laid-off employees who have worked for The Times for 10 or more years will receive up to one year’s salary and health benefits, Schlosberg said.

“Overall, while continuing our distinctive journalistic and marketing achievements, our financial performance compares unfavorably to our peers in almost every significant financial category and is far from where it should be,” Schlosberg said in the letter.

The reductions at The Times are part of broader cost-cutting efforts by the newspaper’s parent, Los Angeles-based Times Mirror Co., which on Sunday closed its unprofitable New York Newsday newspaper.