U.S. media group Tribune Co. has completed a significant restructuring of its managerial staff, media services and publishing facilities. Tribune Co. owns 23 television stations across America, an array of local papers and prints many more, including those published by its subsidiary The Chicago Tribune Media Group.

According both the Tribune Company website and Newsandtech.com, the management restructuring gives Tony Hunter, Publisher and C.E.O of Chicago Tribune Media Group, the additional role of C.E.O of Tribune Publishing, making him responsible for 7 daily papers. Vince Casanova is now Chief Operating Officer of Chicago Tribune Media Group and also assumes a newly created position as President and C.E.O of Chicago Tribune Media. Kathy Thomson remains in control of The L.A. Times, which is also owned by Tribune Co.
Tribune Co.'s modifications to its multimedia and print services are geared towards positioning the company to better compete in both print and digital markets. Notably, when Tribune Media Services was restructured in June, its entertainment holdings were repackaged as a stand-alone business, but the news and features service was combined with Tribune Co.'s other content generating businesses, reflecting the increasingly significant partnership between journalism produced for print and digital content.

Is the relationship between Google and newspapers helpful or competitive? Find out here at imna.org.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are going to be digitalized and put online, according to the Washington Post. "The Israel Antiquities Authority and Google announced Tuesday that they are collaborating to produce digitized images of the entire collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls and put them on the Internet, making the archaeological treasure available to anyone with the click of a mouse," reports the article.

The Tribune Co. was granted a stay of execution, Thursday, when a bankruptcy judge gave the owner of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune until the end of March to file its long-awaited plan of reorganisation. Although the media conglomerate had asked for an extension until June, the extra month permitted gives the company a fighting chance to resolve its bankruptcy and $8.2 billion leveraged buyout issues, which has resulted in the committee of unsecured creditors attempting to start litigating against the banks, in the hope of recuperating a small part of some of the funds lost.

But Judge Kevin Carey ruled that any litigation must be postponed until April, and called the exclusivity extension the company's "last best chance" to finally work its way out of the troubles it has been in since 2007. In light of his decision he added: "the question in the judge's mind is: If I do things, whether it has to do with exclusivity, does it make the administration of this case better, or does it make it harder? Does it open up the door for the litigation nightmare that others in their submissions have discussed, or does it push things toward a resolution?"

The Chicago Tribune announced yesterday that it would be implementing several changes in content and format as it prepares to roll out a narrower page size. Beginning on February 8th, the paper will become one inch narrower. The length of the broadsheet will remain the same, as will the "body type," or font size for news stories.

"There will be some adjustments such as smaller headlines and photos in places, but the content of the paper largely will remain the same," said Editor, Gerould W. Kern, in a letter to readers.
The Tribune felt a smaller page size would save money without sacrificing the quality of their reporting. "This new page size is becoming the industry standard, and many newspapers across the country already have made this change or will do so this year. The narrower page reduces our costs, enabling us to bring you the news coverage you value," said Kern.

The newspaper is run by the Tribune Company, which filed for bankruptcy in December, 2008. Despite the financial difficulties of its parent company, the Tribune managed to bring in an operating cash flow of $500 million last year, a figure which surprised many pundits in the industry.