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L.A. Times deepens layoffs
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December 15, 1998: 6:23 p.m. ET
Marketing, sales jobs slashed in second of newspaper's three rounds of cuts
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The biggest U.S. metropolitan daily newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, on Tuesday announced another round of layoffs in its cost-cutting campaign, this time slashing 500 jobs mostly in its marketing and sales operations.
The Times will eliminate its door-to-door subscription sales operation, cutting about 100 part-time and 15 full-time employees.
"It was very costly and not very efficient," Times spokeswoman Laura Morgan told CNNfn. "Instead, we are focusing on event marketing and in-store sales."
The newspaper also said it will also refocus its telemarketing efforts, cutting 180 part-time and six full-time positions through outsourcing some telesales functions and consolidating its two telephone sales offices.
"It is critical to reduce costs wherever we can to improve our overall financial performance and enable us to invest in future growth," said President and CEO Kathryn M. Downing, adding that the Times must reorganize itself to meet "the huge challenges we face as a company and a newspaper."
As announced Dec. 4, the company will merge its advertising marketing and consumer marketing departments into a single marketing division, cutting 30 positions.
In addition, the Times will cut 25 staffers from its advertising department, consolidate its two order-entry offices to cut 50 part-time positions and one full-time employee, and trim 55 names from its support departments.
Once again, the newspaper cited slow advertising growth for the cost reduction, reiterating Dowling's Nov. 3 vow to "determine what is no longer essential to our future growth and to determine where we can be more cost effective."
This round of layoffs is the second of three, the Times said. The first round, announced in November, cut editorial and operational staff by 250.
The newspaper expects the third round, due by the end of 1998, to be small and limited to a few departments.
The newspaper is a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Times Mirror Co. Times Mirror shares (TMC) edged up 1/16 to close at 55-1/4. 
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