Chicago Sun-Times cutting 40 jobs

Chicago -- The Chicago Sun-Times Friday said it is cutting 35 editorial jobs and five non-union jobs in its newsroom as it faces declining advertising and revenues.

The parent Sun-Times Media Group Inc. will negotiate the cuts with the Chicago Newspaper Guild, the employees' union, over the next two weeks and hopes to avoid involuntary layoffs, a guild official said.

"Whether we meet at that number or not is not subject to negotiations," Guild Executive Director Gerald Minkkinen told Crain's Chicago Business.

The Sun-Times has about 221 newsroom jobs, including 188 guild-covered positions, and could offer buyouts and unpaid leave to eliminate jobs.

The struggling tabloid in December announced it would cut $50 million in costs -- 11 percent of total expenditures -- by June.

The newspaper said 27 copy editor, designer and reporter positions would be eliminated.

"We knew it was going to be bad, but it's worse than people were expecting," a Sun-Times reporter told The Chicago Tribune on background.

In addition to the Sun-Times, The Sun-Times Media Group owns dozens of daily and weekly suburban newspapers. It eliminated 31 positions last year by combining Star newspapers with the Daily Southtown.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.