Layoffs at the Union-Tribune*,**,***

The Boston Globe signaled last week that layoffs were coming to the San Diego Union-Tribune and now the Voice of San Diego has confirmed the cuts are underway:

Bob Kittle, the editorial page editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune, has been laid off, according to newsroom sources. So has Bernie Jones, the editor of the newspaper's opinion page. ...

The newspaper is in the midst of laying off staffers throughout the business. We're working to confirm the size and scope of the layoffs[.]

The Globe mentioned the pending layoffs in a profile of the paper's new owner, Platinum Equity of Beverly Hill. The company, which bought the Union-Tribune in May and promptly laid off 192 employees, has put in a bid to buy the Globe from the New York Times Co.

*Update: PaidContent reports 200 people have been laid off at the Union-Tribune, which would cut the total workforce to 650.

Here's a part of the U-T's story announcing the layoffs and other changes at the paper:

The San Diego Union-Tribune said Wednesday that it is eliminating an undisclosed number of jobs as part of a package of initiatives that also includes new editorial and advertising offerings.

The company announced an advertising program that will allow micro-zoning for small businesses at lower, localized rates, as well as an editorial effort that will produce more local coverage of targeted communities.

It also announced a planned redesign of the company's SignOnSanDiego.com Web site, as well as an investment in a pagination publishing system it said would significantly streamline the newspaper's production process.

The company also said it would partially reverse pay cuts for remaining employees that were implemented in February.

“These initiatives, taken as a whole, strike a balance between our short-term economic reality and our long-term aspirations for growth and reinvention of our product,” Union-Tribune Publisher Ed Moss said.

(h/t LA Biz Observed)

**Update II: According to the communications director for San Diego County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, the U-T has fired military reporter Rick Rogers, cops reporter Mark Arner, photographer Laura Embry and North County editor Jim Okerblom.

(h/t Romenesko)

***Updated: The Union-Tribune has reported that the number of laid off is 112, not the 200 PaidContent reported.

Current and former Times employees sue Sam Zell

Dan Neil, auto critic for the Los Angeles Times, and former Times writers Corie Brown, Henry Weinstein, Walter Roche, Myron Levin and Jack Nelson, have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against Sam Zell.

The group alleges Zell and his cohorts acquired the Tribune Company as part of a "scam" that saddled employees - who own the company through an Employee Stock Option Plan - with all of the risk while Zell shouldered none of it. From the press release:

It's a classic grift, played out under the cover of legal technicalities.

-snip-

When Zell hung “You own this place now” banners at the Los Angeles Times, employees could not know the high price they would pay for this “privilege.” According to the complaint, Zell has de-funded employees retirement packages, raided the employee pension fund for more than $400 million, and eliminated more than a thousand Tribune Co. jobs. Meanwhile, Zell and his band of publishing rookies are wrecking the company’s marquee properties – including the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, and the Chicago Tribune – alienating readers by launching aimless redesigns while dramatically cutting coverage. Seemingly ignorant of journalistic ethics, they have, for instance, turned control of the Los Angeles Times Magazine over to the advertising staff, with no indication to the reader that this product is now a “pay-to-play” advertorial. All the while, revenues have continued to decline.

Further, the plaintiffs allege the Los Angeles Times and other publications could have weathered the tough economic times had Zell not so completely damaged their reputations through massive layoffs, unwise cuts and a general contempt for the product:

The media landscape is changing and, yes, newspapers are just learning how to navigate this new world. Unfortunately, current management is making things worse, led by Zell and his Chicago gang who can't shoot straight. Zell does not consider himself a publisher and has shown nothing but contempt for journalism. He notoriously said “F… you” to an employee-photographer who dared question his leadership. Speaking to the Washington bureau of the Los Angeles Times, Zell referred to the staff as “overhead, not producing any revenue.” Zell’s history is specializing in profiting from the purchase and sale of distressed properties. He has said he expects to make a fortune for himself during his tenure at the Tribune Company. And, as it stands, he can do that while leaving the coffers of the Tribune ESOP empty and the readers of the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Company’s other news outlets without an authoritative local source for news and information.

Should these institutions, vitally important to the life of the nation – indeed, never more so – be allowed to fall victim to ruthless corporate raiding and the pump-and-dump machinations of predatory “investors”? News organizations are both businesses and public trusts. A free press is the only business stipulated by the Constitution. No other entity – no website, no blogger – is on the horizon to replace the boots on the ground around the world providing Americans with the information we need to function in a global economy. The Los Angeles Times, alone, spends $2 million a month to support its Baghdad bureau, making its war coverage among the finest in the world. If Zell and his cronies continue to cut the staffs of these news organizations, it means inevitably that they will give their readers less content that is valuable to them. As these newspapers become less valuable to readers, they become less valuable to advertisers as well.

To that point, Zell and his cronies say they plan to close the Los Angeles Times’ Baghdad bureau.

Read the full press release here.

LA Times cutbacks, papers for sale, and other speculation

I'm told a memo was circulated this weekend among Los Angeles Times staffers asking for volunteers to take buyouts as a way to lessen or avoid layoffs at the paper.

The Chicago Tribune, the Times's sister paper, laid off 20 people on Friday, "many of them" from the newsroom, WBEZ reported.

Times employees are in a state of anxiety, as LA Observed pointed out last week, as rumors of layoffs swirl amid continued efforts by owner Tribune Co. to crawl out of bankruptcy. Investors are impatient and layoffs are a quick way to improve the financial picture in the short term.

So, is this about boosting profits and satisfying debt holders? Or should we believe the Wall Street Journal's speculation that the Times could be being readied for sale - with a smaller payroll making for a more attractive sales price?

And since we're speculating... Could the Tribune be raising cash as a way to up its bid for the Orange County Register? The Register's publisher announced Friday that he'll at the end of September, which would indicate a deal is in the works. MediaNews Group had emerged as the top bidder for the paper, but negotiations broke down last month. This was followed by a flurry of layoffs in MediaNews's Southern California newspapers - a sign the chain is looking to up its ante.

Massive layoffs at the Union-Tribune

It was expected that Platinum Equity would make job cuts a centerpiece of its restructuring plan at the San Diego Union-Tribune and today we learn their magnitude. Beverly Hills-based Platinum, which completed its purchase of the paper three days ago, announced that it would slash 192 positions between now and July 6.

The layoffs represent about 18 percent of the total workforce and will cut across all departments - there is no breakdown for how many newsroom staffers will be lost. About 850 employees will remain once the layoffs are completed.

The Union-Tribune story about the cuts notes that the paper just won a fourth Pulitzer Prize this year, for editorial cartoonist Steve Breen.

(Union-Tribune via Romenesko)

U-T will probably be sold*

Copley Press Inc. was once a journalistic force in Southern California. The company began folding up shop in late 2006 with the sale of the Daily Breeze. A year later, Copley shuttered its bureau in Los Angeles and consolidated operations at the San Diego Union-Tribune. Now, Copley is taking steps to sell off its last major brand:

The announcement by privately owned The Copley Press Inc. follows the sale of several key assets, including its Copley News Service newswire arm and small papers in Illinois and Ohio, over the past 18 months.

The parent company of the San Diego Union-Tribune said Thursday it has retained an investment-banking firm to explore a potential sale.

-snip-

Earlier this year, the Union-Tribune cut 10 percent of its work force. The cuts included 76 buyouts, including newsroom positions, layoffs of 27 employees and the elimination of 14 pressroom jobs.

-snip-

The San Diego Union-Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for its reporting on the bribery scandal that landed former Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham in federal prison.

*The Union-Tribune on the possible sale of the Union-Tribune.

The Platinum treatment

The Boston Globe profiles Beverly Hills-based Platinum Equity, which bought the San Diego Union-Tribune in March and has put in a bid of $35 million to buy the Globe from New York Times Co.

Tom Gores is the billionaire owner. He's 45. He's used the cash he's made from his private equity investments to produce a Lindsay Lohan slasher film.

Good taste aside, the description of what's going on at the Union-Tribune should have the Globe staff frightened. In addition to the 192 layoffs instituted shortly after Platinum Equity bought the San Diego newspaper, the company has barred employees who leave from recruiting current employees for new ventures and hired "consultants" to monitor the productivity of reporters and editors.

The private equity firm brought in Ed Moss, a veteran downsizer who's worked at both the Akron Beacon Journal and the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, to become Union-Tribune publisher.

The Globe reports that another round of layoffs is expectd at the Union-Tribune next week.

Then there's the aggressive manner in which Platinum's attorneys tried to squash a story about two sexual harassment lawsuits that, along with those productivity consultants, raises serious questions about editorial independence and ethics.

Many argue Platinum only got into the newspaper game for the real estate - and the Globe has some prime real estate of its own.

From the Globe:

“They don’t care whether it’s a newspaper or a dairy or a gas station or a small engine manufacturer,’’ said the person close to the transaction. “They’re looking at the fundamentals of the business. If they think they can make money at a certain transaction price, they’re interested in that business.’’

Platinum Equity already has a regional office in Boston.

LAT's Washington bureau to cut, consolidate*

An internal memo from an anonymous Los Angeles Times staffer posted on Romenesko says the Times' DC bureau will be collapsed into a single Tribune Co. structure, leading to as many as eight layoffs. A formal announcement of the plan is expected Nov. 7, with the cuts coming on Nov. 18.

Back in February, Tribune owner Sam Zell said the LAT bureau was "unsupportable." Now we know what he meant.

From the memo:

Well, let’s just say it's bad in every way it can be bad. Basically, the LAT no longer has a Washington bureau and we will be under the control of the Tribune Co., much like McClatchy is run.

Here's what the new Tribune Co. bureau would look like:

19 reporters & 5 editors as a core "national staff"
10 reporters as "regional reporters", divided this way:
2 from LAT
2 from ChiTrib
2 from BaltSun
1 from other small papers

*UPDATE: Doyle McManus, LAT bureau chief, responds to the memo.

Baeder steps down at SGVN

Ben Baeder has stepped down as deputy managing editor of the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group, which includes, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News and Whittier Daily News. Baeder decided to leave the paper shortly after last month's layoffs at the Tribune were announced. His final day is today.

Baeder took the editing job in May, 2008 after a hiatus from newspapers. He'd been a reporter at the Tribune before that. I'm told he's leaving the newspaper profession once again.

Rebecca Kimitch, a political reporter at the Tribune, is slated to take over some of Baeder's editing duties.

Layoffs in LANG*, **

The salary cuts and furloughs weren't enough to stave off layoffs in the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. I'm told that two editorial employees, including the photo editor, were fired from the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and an unfilled editorial position was eliminated. An administrative assistant and IT staffer were also laid off.

There may be more layoffs in other departments and at other papers. I'll update when and if I get more information.

*Update: The layoffs include photo editor Bernardo Alps and designer Mary Roy. An unfilled editorial position at the Pasadena Star-News was also eliminated.

**Update II: Here's the goodbye email from Bernardo Alps to his former colleagues (I deleted his contact information):

...wasn't planning it this way, but I am off in search of new adventures. 

I want to thank all of you for the time we had together. You are a great group of people doing great work under difficult conditions. I enjoyed working with all of you and I learned from each of you. I hope you realize that I had to be a hardass to make things work smoothly. If I was hard on you sometimes, it in no way reflects how I feel about you personally. 

Please stay in touch (and send any leads my way). 

Now I'm off to make some lemonade... 

Take care

What's ahead for MediaNews - and what's left behind

In the best of possible worlds, the shakeup at MediaNews that left company president Jody Lodovic without a job and CEO Dean Singleton with a (severely?) diminished role would serve as an object lesson in how moral cheapness leads to downfall; a final judgment on mass consolidations and layoffs divorced from any sense of journalistic mission, ethics or service; karma for all the dedicated journalists told their dedication was a childish distraction, and for all the readers told they must accept lower and lower standards under the same brand name.

But, I doubt such lessons will be learned. There are now two forces at work in MediaNews, and neither of them is reflection. The first will accelerate change, which is inevitable. The second will shape the change, which is worrisome.

The first force results from the removal of Singleton as CEO. The new directors are no less interested in moneymaking than he and no more interested in quality journalism. Yet, they come without the baggage and ego that clouds strategic decision-making.

The second force results from the removal of the baggage and ego that at least served as a check on the most drastic consolidation plans. The new board is not going to try to preserve a newspaper company, as Singleton has. This could be a benefit to innovation, creating a potential for a sane and creative digital strategy (which is sorely lacking in MediaNews). But this also removes a check on pain.

Martin Langeveld, a former MediaNews executive now at Nieman Journalism Lab, has an excellent post about what to expect, and he makes a convincing argument that Singleton no longer much of a hand in in the company:

While Singleton may have ideas for strategic consolidations, without Lodovic he lacks the necessary financial engineering savvy, and without control of the board, he can’t make anything happen. The new title for Singleton looks and feels like a face-saving ambassadorial position.

In other words, it is time to look beyond Lean Dean. He is not the future.

So, who is in charge and what do they want? Alden Global Capital is the group that now has board control of MediaNews, and the investment company has a deep financial interest in a number of other distressed newspaper companies, many of which might be ripe for a leveling consolidation. Again, from Langeveld:

Clearly, Alden is the outfit with the most skin in the game, having investments in MediaNews, Freedom, Philadelphia Media, Journal Register, Freedom, Tribune and Postmedia. (Incidentally, as a further extension of this network, JP Morgan Chase, which has been involved in the Tribune, Freedom and Journal Register reorganizations, is the largest stockholder at Gannett, with a 10.2 percent “passive” investment.)

With all these interrelationships among investors and “distressed” newspaper firms, it’s not hard to see why Dean Singleton might say that achieving some kind of “consolidation” will be a full-time job. Still, it seems unlikely that Singleton will get to pull the strings, when the money behind the interlocking investment structures is controlled by billionaire Randall Smith, Alden’s founder, who built his fortune through investments in junk bonds and distressed properties. Alden acquired most of its newspaper stakes through its Alden Global Distressed Opportunities Fund, which it launched in 2008 and which is now worth nearly $3 billion. Alden has offices in New York, Dallas, Dubai and Mumbai, along with a tax-haven presence on the Channel Island Jersey.

The beginning of the consolidation process is likely to be here in Southern California, with some form of merger between MediaNews Group's Los Angeles Newspaper Group and the Orange County Register, owned by Freedom Communications. But Alden also has a stake in the Tribune Co, which owns the Los Angeles Times. This could lead to a distribution partnership that serves as a basis for mergers in other parts of the country.

Again, Langeveld:

For example, in New England, a combination of MediaNews, Journal Register and Tribune would have properties in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts — totaling about 25 percent of circulation in those states, on a par with the current California partnership. On a countrywide basis, the companies in which Alden appears to have a stake and some degree of influence, as detailed above, have about 15 percent of all circulation and if fully merged, would be about 10 percent bigger than the current champion, Gannett.

Hopefully, we'll see more reporting on Randall Smith, the billionaire owner of Alden, and get a sense of where he wants to go.

No deal yet for Union-Tribune, layoffs likely

As Mark Lacter at LA Biz Observed observes, Copley's failure to sell the San Diego Union-Tribune and poor ad sales have already put employees in a bind. The Pulitzer-prize winning paper has suspended merit raises, cut health benefits and ended 401k matches. Now Copley CEO Gene Bell warns of another round of layoffs:

We must make even more dramatic changes in our cost structure that, unfortunately, must soon include a reduction in force. We are working through the details of staff reductions thoughtfully with a focus on protecting the quality of the products our readers and advertising customers expect.

It's a buyers market out there for anyone looking to snap up a struggling newspaper. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be anyone out there looking to buy a struggling newspaper. The Rocky Mountain News, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer have all been put up for sale in recent weeks. The two advantages the U-T has over the others is that San Diego is a one-newspaper town and the owner hasn't been crippled by bad debt.

Layoffs at Contra Costa Times*

A July 1 memo from Bay Area News Group Executive Editor Kevin Keane to employees says the paper will layoff 18 people from the newsroom by midsummer.

Keane writes:

It goes without saying that this deep a cut on top of previous reductions will have a lasting impact on our newspapers and Web sites. Our preference would be to hold staffing at its current level until the revenue bottomed out, but we can't delay if we're to get through this downturn.

Before we finalize these cuts, however, we're asking for volunteers to step forward. These volunteers will receive an additional severance of up to eight weeks salary on top of the severance mentioned above - one week's pay for each year worked, up to eight years. Under the volunteer program, a 12-year employee would receive the maximum 20-week severance.

Read the full memo here.

The Bay Area News Group newspaper chain is a division of Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group and includes the Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune. BANG plans to consolidate its copy desk functions with the San Jose Mercury News, which is expected to lead to even more layoffs at the latter paper.

(h/t themediaisdying)

*Update: This post has been clarified to show that the layoffs will affect all BANG papers, not only the Contra Costa Times.

Local papers see circulations drop*

Newspapers across Southern California saw substantial drops in daily circulation over the last six months, according to the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations report.

The region's largest paper, the Los Angeles Times, lost 11.1 percent of its weekday circulation between April and September. The paper now sells an average of 657,467 papers a day during the week.

Dean Singleton's LANG papers lost circulation as well, the Times reports. Circulation at the flagship Daily News in Woodland Hills plunged 26% to 95,938. The paper has had several rounds of buyouts and layoffs and, as a result, has shifted focus away from Los Angeles to concentrate on cities in the San Fernando Valley.

The Pasadena Star-News fell 5.3 percent to 24,362. The Long Beach Press-Telegram dropped 8.2% to 71,411 and the Daily Breeze in Torrance 2.7%, giving it a circulation of 61,925*.

Singleton's Inland Empire papers - also part of LANG - experienced similar drops, the Press-Enterprise reports. Weekday circulation at the San Bernardino Sun and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin dropped 9.4 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively. The Sun now sells an average of 47,015 papers a day during the week and the Bulletin averages 48,014. The Sun lost 6.4 percent of its Sunday circulation and the Bulletin lost 2.9 percent.

The Belo-owned Riverside Press-Enterprise experienced the biggest decline in the Inland Empire, with circulation falling 24.3 percent on weekdays for an average of 113,182 copies sold. Sunday circulation was down 23.3 percent. Contributing to the losses were several rounds of staff cuts in the last year and the paper's decision to end delivery services in parts of San Bernardino County.

Out east, weekday circulation at the Desert Sun in Palm Springs decreased 11.6 percent to 36,207 papers. The Gannett-owned paper cut staff last year and instituted furloughs this year.

The Orange County Register's weekday circulation slipped 10.1 percent to 212,293; the Register's parent company, Freedom Communications, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month.

The San Diego Union-Tribune, which suffered major staff cuts shortly after it was bought by Beverly Hills-based Platinum Equity, dropped 10% to 242,705.

Nationally, newspapers lost an average of 10.6 percent of their circulation, according to ABC.

*I have yet to come across circulation numbers for the Whittier Daily News and San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

*Updated: Finally saw a list of all the papers. The San Gabriel Valley Tribune saw its weekday circulation fall to 33,387 papers a day from 37,594, an 11 percent drop. The Whittier Daily News fell 13,076 from 14,563, a decline of 10 percent.

A small sliver of silver lining: The Pasadena Star-News saw a 1 percent increase in Sunday circulation and the Whittier Daily News saw a 2 percent increase.

Sharpening knives (updated)

MediaNews plans to layoff nine newsroom employees at the San Jose Mercury News.*, **

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times newsroom is preparing for another round of cuts - mostly layoffs this time, according to Tell Zell.

*Editor & Publisher reports that Martin Gee is one of those getting the pink slip at the Mercury News. Gee created the "Reduction in Force" page on Flickr to document the last round of layoffs.

**Steve Geissinger, long-time capitol bureau chief for the Oakland Tribune, is a victim of the latest layoffs.

A little off the top in Oregon, Tampa

The two top editors at the Oregonian and the Tampa Tribune, both of whom are women, have announced that they will step down.

Sandra Mims Rowe, who led the Oregonian to five Pulitzers in her 16 years at the helm, leaves as the paper prepares for a round of layoffs - she said the paper has too many top editors to justify the expense of keeping her on.

Tribune editor Janet Coats has shepherded her paper through six rounds of layoffs since 2005. She said she chose now to resign because the paper is now on more stable financial footing.

(found via Romenesko)

Layoffs in the works*

LANG does appear to be trimming its ranks on the business side. I'm told four people working in the classified ad department at the San Gabriel Valley Tribune were laid off today.

Update: I'm told two photographers, Eric Reed and Jeff Malet, were laid off at the San Bernardino Sun/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

Update II: An anonymous comment says the receptionist at the Daily Bulletin did not lost her job after all, so I've removed that line from an earlier update. Since most of the information I have about layoffs is sketchy right now - and some of it is conflicting - I'll wait to update again until I have more solid information.

UPDATE III: San Gabriel Valley Tribune sports reporter Doug Padilla was laid off.

*This is an updated version of an earlier post.

Bankruptcies could make strange bedfellows in L.A.

Last Friday, Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group sent out a press release that said the company would file for bankruptcy. The message included reassuring language about the future and promises that the company's newspapers would be shielded from any fallout.

Such promises came up hollow since most of the company's collapsing bottom line has already demolished its newsrooms. But assuming Singleton holds to his pledge and closes no papers and cuts no jobs as a direct result of the bankruptcy, the future remains uncertain for MediaNews.

In trying to divine what it all means, media observers focused their attention on a couple of paragraphs in the Wall Street Journal's story about the bankruptcy:

...Mr. Singleton said he wanted to be aggressive in merging newspapers.

People in the industry have pointed to MediaNews's paper in St. Paul and the Star Tribune in Minneapolis as potential candidates for a combination, as well as to adjacent papers in Southern California published by MediaNews, MediaNews Group Co. and MediaNews Group Inc.

The media site FishbowlLA reasoned that this merging would inevitably lead to more layoffs:

It's hard to imagine how merging any of MediaNews's Southern California papers won't result in lost jobs - and a reduction of local coverage. Perhaps Mr. Singleton has a more active imagination than the rest of us?

Additional layoffs are always possible. But the fact is, MediaNews has already consolidated most of the operations of its nine Southern California newspapers. It's hard to see where else the company could squeeze. While individual newsrooms exist under different mastheads and in different offices (and fight to remain independent, sometimes to the point of mutual contempt), they're highly interdependent. The Los Angeles Newspaper Group (LANG), as they're collectively called, shares stories, relies on a single copy desk, operates under a board structure, outsources printing, and has almost no redundant beats.

The three papers in the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group (aka SGVN) are essentially one newspaper with three zoned editions. While each of the papers has its own news staffs and at least two pages of original content, editorial oversight and business operations are centralized. SGVN, in turn, has a close relationship with the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, San Bernardino Sun and Redlands Daily Facts. Together, they form the Inland Division of LANG. The other three LANG papers - Los Angeles Daily News, Torrance Daily Breeze and Long Beach Press-Telegram - form LANG's Metro Division.

So what's left to merge? Geography and local advertising warn against a single LANG newspaper or news site. But the bankruptcy could clear away business entanglements leftover from MediaNews's buying sprees. Notice the WSJ article mentions "MediaNews, MediaNews Group Co. and MediaNews Group Inc." This is because MediaNews has different investors for different blocks of newspapers, even with LANG. If the bankruptcy creates a single company, LANG papers might find ways consolidate further - or even partner with other papers.

On this latter point, MediaNews has already made overtures to share limited content with the Orange County Register (which also went bankrupt) and prints several of its papers on the Register's presses. Out in Riverside, the shrinking Press-Enterprise has largely ceded San Bernardino County to the Sun. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for the two papers to cross-pollinate.

A few media analysts have raised the prospect of a deal between MediaNews and the Los Angeles Times. The Times - it's bankrupt, too - has a shrunken newsroom and a smaller vision for itself. This could, theoretically, pave the way for a deal to distribute Times content through MediaNews properties.

Former Daily News editor Ron Kaye:

The only obstacle to the Times taking over the whole LA market and potentially salvaging the existing papers nameplates in localized editions is the U.S. Justice Department and laws against monopolies.

Former Knight Ridder exec Ken Doctor's take:

In L.A., Tribune’s soon-to-be-owners similarly may have little interest in staying the course. Maybe a L.A. combination, involving the Times around lowered-cost, higher-efficiency publishing -- Singleton’s once and future trademark – is the way to go.

Is it possible we've come to the point where rivals end competition and embrace collaboration? At one time, Singleton's papers were seen as stepping stones on the way to a job at a paper like the Times, but times have changed and economic woes have become a greater leveler. Furthermore, bankruptcies have a way of killing ego and the drive to compete, and shrinking papers aren't looking to be dominant anymore - they just want to survive.

Layoffs at the Union-Tribune

The San Diego Union-Tribune laid off five news staffers yesterday. The San Diego Reader has the story.

Layoffs in San Gabriel Valley

At least five, and as many as seven, newsroom employees have lost their jobs in the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group. Layoff notices went to three from the copy desk, one photographer, and the city editor at the Pasadena Star-News.

The layoffs come as the papers' owner, Denver-based MediaNews Group, is being asked to up its offer for the Orange County Register.

The newspaper group includes the Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune and Whittier Daily News.

Roiling in Woodland Hills

According to the Daily News[room] blog, Los Angeles Daily News Editor Carolina Garcia on Friday told reporters and editors that the planned copy desk merger with the San Gabriel Valley Tribune will take place in March. She also told staffers to expect more layoffs, but said the paper would offer buyouts first.

The Daily News[room] reports:

The potential number of layoffs would be dependent on how many employees accepted the buyout offer, but initial reports suggest the target is five or six.

The details and terms of the buyout package are unclear at this time, but several employees have stepped forward in response to the offer.