Newspaper merger means 31 layoffs at Daily Southtown

TINLEY PARK -- More than 30 Daily Southtown editorial employees will be laid off by the end of the year in the wake of a merger announced last month, the newspaper's parent company announced Thursday.

The layoffs will include 20 full-time and 11 part-time employees, according to Tammy Chase, spokeswoman for parent Sun-Times Media Group.

"We notified the employees today and they will be given employment through the end of the year," Chase said Thursday. "The full-time employees will also be given severance pay."

STMG announced last month that the Southtown was merging with the twice-weekly Star publications. The merged newspaper will be published daily from this southern Chicago suburb as the SouthtownStar, starting Nov. 18.

Chase said the two publications currently have a combined full-time editorial staff of approximately 100, plus some 15 part-timers. She said all the layoffs will be editorial because there is no redundancy in other departments.

The job cuts, which STMG says are expected to help save $3 million annually, are the latest attempt to trim expenses at the company, which owns the Chicago Sun-Times and more than 100 other regional publications. The company in August reported a first-half loss of $75 million.