San Diego Newspaper Trims Payroll, Announces Ad Program

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The San Diego Union Tribune announced a series of changes that include eliminating jobs, ramping up a new advertising program and streamlining its printing process to save money.

The newspaper was purchased in May by Platinum Equity, a Beverly Hills investment firm.

The Union Tribune didn’t disclose the number of layoffs, but the Voice of San Diego, a non-profit news site, reported that Bob Kittle and Bernie Jones, the editorial page and opinion page editors, respectively, were among those let go.

In May the newspaper trimmed 192 people from its payroll, just days after Platinum purchased the paper from Copley Press Inc.

The newspaper also announced an advertising program that will allow small businesses to geographically target the distribution of an ad at lower rates. On the editorial side, the new Neighborhood Express Project will bring hyper-local coverage to specific areas of San Diego to accompany the local advertising.

In addition, the company plans to invest in a new pagination system that will reduce costs for producing the daily newspaper.

“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 in an article on the Union Tribune site.

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