Chronicle to trim its work force

A little brief tucked into the Business section of the Chronicle and brought to my attention by Ed Schipul on Twitter.

The Houston Chronicle is cutting about 5 percent of its work force through
layoffs and the elimination of open positions as it restructures the operations
of the newspaper, Publisher and President Jack Sweeney said Monday.

Approximately 70 employees will be affected by the changes.

"Even with our core newspaper and extensive lineup of print and online products, our ad revenues have trended down over the last five years," Sweeney said. "Projections for 2008 also show a downturn."

The Chronicle is the seventh-largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the U.S. and the eighth-largest on Sunday. Its Web site, chron.com, averages nearly 70 million page views and 6 million unique visitors each month.

Revenue for most U.S. newspapers has been in decline, hurt by the Internet and by declines in advertising. The San Antonio Express-News, also owned by the Hearst Corp., announced last week that it would eliminate 40 to 50 positions across the company in order to focus on online and niche products.

Sweeney said the Chronicle needs a different structure to meet current needs.

"We need to operate differently, and at less cost, in order to devote more resources to new technology and product development," Sweeney said.