Heat City

Burl Osborne

It looks like Scott Flanders left for the land of smoking jackets and naked bunnies just in time.

Freedom Communications, the owner of the East Valley Tribune and other Arizona newspapers, is considering entering into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company’s new chief executive told the Orange County Register on Monday.

Burl Osborne, who took over as CEO after Scott Flanders left to head up Playboy Enterprises in Chicago, said that Freedom is in heated negotiations with its banks over how to handle $700 million in debt hanging around the company’s neck.

One option, Osborne said, would be to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy so the company could reorganize with the help of a federal judge. However, Osborne cautioned, “it does not mean the company is bankrupt,” saying that “one can’t be certain of anything” at this point.

Brian Lawlor

At the end of a particularly brutal week for Arizona media, word came out today that another Phoenix news outlet will be handing out pink slips, this time in the name of efficiency.

The head of television for the E.W. Scripps Co. told employees nationwide today that the media chain plans to layoff workers from most of its television stations, which includes ABC 15 in Phoenix, in the next three months due to an “unprecedented time of change in how stations deliver news.”

The cuts will come by the end of September with stations laying off most workers in two behind-the-scenes departments — graphics and traffic — so the chain can consolidate those functions into separate national hubs.

The move “means that the majority of the employees who handle these responsibilities today will soon end their tenure with the company,” Scripps television chief Brian Lawlor wrote to employees in a memo obtained today by Heat City. “We realize these necessary changes deeply affect the lives of these valued friends and co-workers, and we remain appreciative of the contributions they have made to this company’s success.”

The first official word from the Arizona Republic came out tonight about how many people were cut from its ranks this week. Roughly 100 people were laid off, with 20 of them coming from the newsroom, according to an article posted on the newspaper’s website.

The 100-person figure is significantly higher than what was rumored earlier in the day by other news outlets, and appears to fit more closely with the company’s announcement last week that 7 percent of the staff would be gone by today.

A source told Heat City on Wednesday night that the bulk of the layoffs began in the evening with journalists and other Republic employees learning their fates by way of phone calls at home.

Developing: The layoffs promised last week by management at the Arizona Republic finally came down today with a number of people being told through phone calls that they had lost their jobs, according to a source familiar with the moves. Information is still scarce about how many total cuts were made at the state’s largest newspaper, but rumors are flying on Twitter and elsewhere.

Last week, executive editor Randy Lovely told staffers that 7 percent would be losing jobs in this round of cuts. Gannett Co., the media chain that owns the Republic, ordered layoffs at its newspapers nationwide.

As always, if you have more information about the layoffs at the Republic, including memos, please email them to Heat City. Anonymity is guaranteed.

The state’s largest newspaper, the Arizona Republic, plans to lay off 7 percent of its staff in the coming days as part of new round of cuts ordered by its parent company, Gannett, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

The source said executive editor Randy Lovely plans to break the bad news to staffers in a series of meetings today. Employees are expected to be told their fates individually by sometime next week.

The pink slips are the first handed out this year by the newspaper, one of the 10 largest in the nation by Sunday circulation. However, it will be at least the third time in 2009 the Republic has made painful cutbacks. During the first two, the newspaper forced employees to take at least a week off without pay.