Guild Members Protest Latest Sun Job Cuts BALTIMORE, MD (wypr) - Lynn Anderson has worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun for nine years. She said she opted for a buy-out when she was notified by Sun management that they would cut 100 jobs. She said this means she will get one week of pay for every six months she has worked there, if her proposal is accepted by management.

TAPE: (24 SECONDS), Lynn Anderson, Track 21--00:04:25
IC: I think that's kind of the reality that a lot of journalists are in right now. Is our industry is really at a crossroads and me leaving here, it's not like there is another paper I can go to. All papers are having cutbacks, job freezes, hiring freezes, so I don't know, I really don't know what's next.

Members of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild set out 100 black chairs in front of the Sun's front doors on Calvert Street. Each chair had a pink slip taped to it. Anderson says they represent the employees' sense of disappointment at what the company is doing to the paper. This is the third round of job cuts in one year by the Tribune Company, which owns The Sun.

Tanika White covers aging for the Sun. She has decided to stay, but is scared that the next cut may be hers.

TAPE: (29 SECONDS), Tanika White, Track 15--00:04:10,
IC: So, it's really sad for me to think about a future not in journalism, but unfortunately, the Tribune executives have made it such that that is something I'm doing more and more these days, is thinking about what else I'm going to do.

Ann Sagi-Ward is a retired copy editor. She retired from the Sun five years ago, but she still reads it every day. She says that the news business, as a whole, is just a shadow of what it used to be.

TAPE: (29 SECONDS), Ann Sagi (Sagee)-Ward, Track 20--00:2:15
IC: The amount of news, the news hole is shrinking. But that doesn't mean that the people in the community don't need to support it and that also doesn't mean that it needs to be gutted any more than it has.


Tom Pelton covers the environment at the Baltimore Sun. He spoke to the crowd through a megaphone about his disappointment. He has taken a buyout, too. Later, he said he's going to stay in journalism because he believes it's his civic responsibility.

TAPE: (26 SECONDS), Tom Pelton, Track 29--00:00:20
IC: As the world becomes more global, this paper is becoming more local. As America is beset by increasingly serious and complex problems our distant corporate owners in Chicago are turning us into a tabloid full of press releases and Miley Cyrus photos. We desperately need more paid subscribers, but we're trying to bring them in by offering them less..

Tim Wheeler has been a reporter at the Sun for 23 years. He says they are still a benchmark in the community. That's why he's staying.

TAPE: (10 SECONDS), Tim Wheeler, Track 35--00:4:50
IC: Call me stupid, I don't know or just the eternal optimist, or a survivor. I prefer to think of myself as a survivor. I've been kicked around before, I've worked other places. This is still a better place than most of the other places I've worked before. It's going to be harder to feel that way with a lot fewer people in there 05:09

Protesters say they want the current owners, led by real estate magnate Sam Zell, to sell The Sun. AMB Track 28 HEY Sam Zell, It's Time to Sell--- They believe that a local group should buy it, so residents will get wider coverage of news. Sun management will formally announce layoffs tomorrow.

I'm Farrah Childs, reporting in downtown Baltimore, for 88-1, WYPR.
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