Tribune Cuts

From today's Wall Street Journal -

Tribune Co. Chairman Sam Zell detailed planned changes to the company's struggling newspaper division, including a reduction in the number of pages and staffers at its daily papers.
...
Mr. Zell also disclosed that Tribune has collected data on the productivity of every journalist at its papers and plans to use that data to "right-size" the staff size to correspond with smaller newspapers. The company didn't detail the planned size or timing of staff reductions but said decisions would be left up to publishers of the individual papers. "You can eliminate a fair number of people while eliminating not very much content," Mr. Michaels said. FULL ARTICLE

Former LA Times editor criticizes the Tribune's plan.

Industry News

'Star-Ledger' Publisher Details Paper's Money-Losing Problems -- and Cost-Cutting Future -- in Holiday Staff Letter

Romensko has more.

Foreign Films Translate Into Growing Revenue Stream, Newspapers Do Not

The U.S. Census released the 2006 Service Annual Survey: Information Sector Services, a series of economic tables that are part of a larger package. The Information Sector includes newspaper publishers, books and periodicals; the film industry; broadcast companies; telecommunications companies; and Internet service providers.

Details from the survey:

Foreign film admissions revenue increased 18.7 percent to $216 million in 2006, thanks in large part to Pan's Labyrinth and The Lives of Others.

Revenue from admission to domestic films remains flat.

Broadcast television and cable television are up. So are music publishers and radio networks.

Newspaper publishers and greeting cards are down in revenue. Newspaper publishers showed a 1.7 percent decline, falling to $48.9 billion. Greeting card publishers are down 9.4%.