Key newspapers chop business pages, sniff elsewhere

It’s been a bad year for newspaper standalone business sections, observes Grumpy Editor.  They are disappearing as one of several vital components of daily newspapers.

Latest to eliminate a standalone business section (by month’s end) is The Baltimore Sun, a Tribune Co. newspaper.

Chris Roush, who writes Talking Biz News, reports that two pages of business news will move inside another Sun section but the Sunday consumer section will survive as a standalone.

Roush, who keeps a tally of such things, notes other metropolitan dailies that have cut their standalone business sections in the past year include the Denver Post, Orange County (Calif.) Register, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, St. Petersburg Times, Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal, Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, Monterey (Calif.) Herald, Palm Beach Post and Akron (Ohio) Beacon-Journal.  The San Francisco Chronicle’s standalone business section has been axed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Meanwhile, other trimming continues.  The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, is cutting an average of 32 pages a week and eliminating four weekly standalone sections, including Monday business with its content placed elsewhere.

Elsewhere, in efforts to hypo the bottom line, newspaper management is eyeing other expenses, right down to office supplies. The Chicago Sun-Times reports competitor Chicago Tribune management is seeking to reduce its $3.5 million annual office supplies bill by $500,000 a year.

A memo to Tribune employees from chief administration officer Gerry Spector asks workers to reduce supply purchases and economize on travel. Spector adds, “Beginning June 30, the number of items you can buy from OfficeMax will be reduced from 35,000 items to 1,000.”

Sun-Times business reporter Davis Roeder mentions some Tribune workers say “Spector might not have been the best guy to deliver a message about penny-pinching.”  Around Tribune Tower, he points out, Spector “is known for cruising into the executive parking lot with a 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, worth about $235,000, according to car valuation references.”