Hartford Courant to cut staff and pages

Hartford, Conn. -- The oldest continuously published U.S. newspaper, the Hartford Courant, will trim 60 jobs and reduce pages, the newspaper said Thursday.

The newspaper's newsroom staff will be reduced from 232 to 175 by July 31 as part of parent company Tribune Co.'s efforts to "right-size" the newspaper, the Courant reported.

News content will decline by 25 percent, the newspaper said.

"We're redesigning the newspaper with the goal of making it sleeker, smarter and more relevant to our readers' lives," publisher and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Carver said in a memo to the newspaper's staff.

"Unfortunately, the redesign will impact news staffing levels in order to reflect our new business model," the memo said.

Carver said advertising revenues had declined in double-digits from a year ago although local advertising dropped in "low single digits."

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.