Tribune target is 200 jobs

That's a reduction of 200 staffers across all the Tribune Co. papers, not just at the L.A. Times, a Chicago Tribune story says today. Each paper will decide how to achieve the cost savings number it has been given, whether by buyouts, layoffs, cutting sections or other ways of reducing expenses. The problem at the LAT, says the Tribune story:

Since the beginning of the year, a grocery workers' strike in Southern California, a shortened season leading up to the Academy Awards and fewer blockbuster movies have disproportionately hurt advertising sales at the Los Angeles Times, the largest newspaper by circulation in the Tribune chain.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Tribune-owned Baltimore Sun has offered buyouts to 63 staffers, in hopes that at least 18 will accept.