Big Cuts in Planning at Plain Dealer

The newspaper business, as readers here probably know, isn’t what it used to be.

The economic crisis for newspapers now will be felt strongly in Cleveland.

Top Plain Dealer executives – Publisher Terry Egger and Editor Susan Goldberg -  told worried editorial staff members yesterday that the business climate is so bad that the paper plans to cut 35 pages a week from its news pages and 20 percent of its workforce.

Egger said they were looking at “drastic changes,” according to PD reporters.

That’s 35 pages of less news every week or 1,820 pages a year for readers of Cleveland's only daily newspaper.

A day ago the Tribune Company announced it would chop 500 pages a week from its newspapers, which include the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant and others. The New York Times reported that it could mean 82 pages a day cut from the L. A. Times.

The plan has to be approved by Advance publications, owned by  the Newhouse family, Plain Dealer owners.

A newspaper price increase is also contemplated.

The paper has already lost some 17 percent of its editorial staff after a recent buyout.

The paper will reduce its op-ed pages from two to one; stock tables will be gone (Correction: half a page gone). There will be no business pages on Monday and special sports sections will be eliminated.

This cannot mean anything good to those who already find the newspaper lacking in its coverage.