• by Erik Sass , April 16, 2009

The implosion of the American newspaper business continued this week with a cutback at The New York Times -- which is slicing even more weekly sections in an effort to save on editorial and printing costs -- and a cutting remark from embattled Tribune boss Sam Zell, who admitted his buyout of the newspaper publisher was "a mistake."

Among the victims of the latest purge, reported on the NYT's Web site Thursday, are weekly sections covering New York City, Long Island, Westchester County, New Jersey and Connecticut. News from these sections will be consolidated in a new, single section that will appear on Sundays, according to NYT Executive Editor Bill Keller.

The newspaper is also eliminating the stand-alone "Escapes" section; the content that would appear there is being consolidated with the "Weekend" section. Finally, the Times' Sunday magazine will no longer feature regular fashion spreads.

These are just the latest in a series of cutbacks targeting separate sections, which cost more to print. In late March, The New York Times stopped publishing its stand-alone "City" section, saying the content would still appear in the paper's "New York" section. In September, the paper axed its stand-alone "Metro" section, which began publication in 1991, but dwindled in size in recent years. "Metro stories" are now appended to the paper's first section, after international and national news.

Also this week, Tribune Co. chairman and CEO Sam Zell admitted in an interview with Bloomberg TV that buying the company was "a mistake," explaining: "By definition, if you bought something and it's now worth a great deal less, you made a mistake, and I'm more than willing to say I made a mistake. "I was too optimistic in terms of the newspaper's ability to preserve its position."

Hinting at more print cutbacks in favor of digital distribution, Zell added: "It's very obvious that the newspaper model in its current form does not work, and the sooner we all acknowledge that the better."

Zell engineered an $8.5 billion deal in 2007 to take the company private as an employee-owned business, using about $300 million dollars of his own money, with the rest loaned by banks. This brought Tribune's total debt to $13 billion.

In December 2008, Zell was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Tribune's borrowing covenants required the company to maintain a proportion of cash flow to total debt of no less than 1-to-9 through 2008, tightening to 8.75-to-1 in the first quarter of 2009. This proved impossible after the company failed to sell the Chicago Cubs baseball franchise as planned.