As reported on 30 January, the Los Angeles Times is to reorganise the sections of its paper. More details have now emerged on changes to the paper and to the newsroom, including 70 editorial job cuts.

From 2 March the paper will have four sections rather than five. Local, national and international coverage and opinion will be grouped together into a "main news" section, and will include the California report, followed by The Nation, The World and then Opinion. According to publisher Eddy Hartenstein, this will "combine the stories and reporting of our two most widely-read print sections into one cohesive section." The business section will follow, then the sports section which will also include classified advertising, and the fourth section will be 'Calendar', covering entertainment news. The feature section lineup will remain unchanged.

According to editor Russ Stanton, the reorganisation of the paper will be accompanied by "the final pieces of the newsroom reorganisation that we began last year." 70 editorial staff, 11%, will lose their jobs. The changes include "reclassifying jobs, reconfiguring desks, revamping our workflow and exploring new topic teams."

The cuts, including 300 jobs overall, "are designed to help us deal with the economic realities of the day," explained Hartenstein. The LA Times is not alone in making significant cuts; A.H. Belo Corp., which owns the The Dallas Morning News and three other newspapers, has announced that it will lay off 500 workers, or about 14% of its work force, and take other cash-saving measures to cope with falling ad revenue.

Source: Editor & Publisher, International Herald Tribune