The Sarasota Herald-Tribune will cut jobs as it reshapes its features section and consolidates four regional offices.
The Herald-Tribune, owned by the New York Times Regional Media Group, is the largest of the four daily titles the Times owns in Florida.
Blaming a slump in the real estate market that has cut advertising revenue and the trend of moving toward digital and away from print, the newspaper must continue to adapt its business model “in response to the growing reliance on new media,” Herald-Tribune Publisher Diane McFarlin said in a Herald-Tribune article.
The newspaper will start new interactive Web sites aimed at allowing readers to share their own news, photos and videos. Changes in features coverage include adding new sections, like weekly Health & Fitness and Food & Wine.
“We want to try a new approach,” she is quoted as saying in the article. “People are consuming information in new and different ways and we are trying to adapt to that by doing more on the Web and doing more to appeal to special interests. At the same time, we are forced by economic conditions to seek operational efficiencies.”
The company has not yet set a date for changes in feature coverage, and the number of lay-offs is still unknown.

