Sam Zell has started filling a promise he made in December to streamline The Tribune Co., which will start with a string of layoffs this week.

About a dozen Chicago-based employees in the human resources department have been informed their positions at Tribune Tower are being eliminated, according to sources cited by the Chicago Tribune Thursday.

Additional job cuts are expected in finance, legal and other back-office departments whose functions have been deemed not necessary anymore, or can be delegated to Tribune's individual business units, such as the Chicago Tribune, television station WGN-Channel 9 and radio station WGN-AM 720, the Tribune reported.

A Tribune Co. spokesman declined to comment about the details and the total number of positions that have been targeted.

With the completion of the $8.2 billion “privatised” transaction late last year, Zell appointed longtime associate Gerry Spector as executive vice president and chief administrative officer and assigned him to "zero budget" the company, according to the Tribune.

"If you want to visit the corporate office, you ought to do it in the next month," Zell said last week, hinting at what was to come.