Tronc Slashes 'New York Daily News' Staff By Half 
 
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 The newspaper publishing company Tronc has moved to slash the New York Daily News newsroom, announcing cuts of 50 percent to the paper's editorial staff, according to an internal memo obtained by NPR and other news outlets. 
 
 The staff learned of the cuts Monday morning from a memo emailed from the paper's "talent engagement" account. It said the moves were necessary to seize the opportunities of digital news and financial challenges ahead. A Tronc spokeswoman confirmed the veracity of the memo. 
 
 Tronc said in the memo that the Daily News would be "re-focusing much of our talent on breaking news — especially in areas of crime, civil justice and public responsibility." 
 
 Tronc purchased the famed New York City tabloid last fall for $1 in a reunion of sorts; the paper was founded by Tronc's corporate predecessor, the Tribune Co., in 1919 and sold off in 1991. The Daily News endured waves of cuts under subsequent owners and declining paid circulation in recent years though it has remained on most lists of top 10 circulation papers in the U.S. 
 
 Tronc is the owner of other papers in Chicago, Baltimore, Hartford, Florida, and Virginia, among others. Tronc's continuing cuts and shift in emphasizing quick-turn pieces for digital audiences led to successful unionization drives at both the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, then its two largest papers, earlier this year. Tronc subsequently sold the LA Times. 
 
 Last fall, the Chicago Tribune called Tronc's acquisition of the Daily News "a stunning and bold bet on the future of newspapers." Tronc's CEO (and now chairman) Justin Dearborn said at the time, "We expect it to benefit greatly from becoming part of the Tronc ecosystem." 
 
 The move now to gut the Daily News's newsroom will be a blow to local watchdog journalism in the nation's largest city. It has retained a punch in local news at a time when the The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have retreated from metro coverage. 
 
 The Daily News won a Pulitzer Prize last year, its 11th, with ProPublica, for its exposure of how the New York Police Department used an obscure civil enforcement law to evict hundreds of poor people from their homes without their being able to challenge the move first. The paper has also made a meal of the Donald Trump presidency from the populist left, depicting the New York-based real estate developer, long familiar to readers of its gossip pages, as a malevolent, autocratic and cartoonish figure. 
 
 Former Daily News editor-in-chief Jim Rich was rehired as the tabloid's editor after Tronc acquired it last September. Rich and Managing Editor Kristen Lee are out as part of the cuts. Rich made his anger toward the cuts known on Twitter, first by tweeting early Monday morning: "If you hate democracy and think local governments should operate unchecked and in the dark, then today is a good day for you." 
 
 He subsequently changed his Twitter bio to this: "Just a guy sitting at home watching journalism being choked into extinction." 
 
 Tronc has appointed a new editor-in-chief, Robert York, previously editor and publisher of the smaller Tronc sister paper, the Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call. 
 
 Below is the Tronc memo: ||||| Ambitious projects like the series on New York Police Department’s abuse of eviction rules — for which The News shared a Pulitzer Prize with ProPublica in 2017 — would seem difficult to pull off with an even smaller staff. Sarah Ryley, the reporter on the series, who left The News last year, said it had taken three years to complete because she and the rest of the staff were stretched thin after the layoffs under Mr. Zuckerman. 
 
 “You used to go into the office and feel the energy,” said Frank Isola, a sports columnist at The News for nearly 25 years, who was among those laid off on Monday. “I’ve probably been in the office, I would say, maybe three times in the last three years. People tell me: ‘Don’t come in. It’s depressing.’” 
 
 
 
 Since Tronc bought the ailing tabloid from Mr. Zuckerman in September 2017 — for a reported $1; yes, one dollar — the company has been working to transform The News into something more digital. 
 
 “But we have not gone far enough,” the company said in a memo to the staff that announced its decision to reduce “the size of the editorial team by approximately 50 percent” and to shift its focus to breaking news. 
 
 Some News employees started packing last week, after the media newsletter Study Hall reported that the company planned to lay off a large portion of the staff. 
 
 Although daily print circulation had sunk to roughly 200,000, Mr. Rich breathed new life into the paper. During two stints as editor — a 13-month run that ended in 2016, and an encore that began in January — he regularly published front pages that captured the staccato energy of social media. 
 
 He was typically combative in a Twitter post on Monday: “If you hate democracy and think local governments should operate unchecked and in the dark, then today is a good day for you,” he wrote. Mr. Rich also dropped the Daily News affiliation from his Twitter bio. “Just a guy sitting at home watching journalism being choked into extinction,” it reads. ||||| Copies of the New York Daily News are for sale at a news stand in New York, Monday, July 23, 2018, after the paper told employees that the newspaper is reducing its editorial staff by 50 percent. (AP... (Associated Press) 
 
 Copies of the New York Daily News are for sale at a news stand in New York, Monday, July 23, 2018, after the paper told employees that the newspaper is reducing its editorial staff by 50 percent. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) (Associated Press) 
 
 Copies of the New York Daily News are for sale at a news stand in New York, Monday, July 23, 2018, after the paper told employees that the newspaper is reducing its editorial staff by 50 percent. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) (Associated Press) Copies of the New York Daily News are for sale at a news stand in New York, Monday, July 23, 2018, after the paper told employees that the newspaper is reducing its editorial staff by 50 percent. (AP... (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — The New York tabloid Daily News will cut half of its newsroom staff, saying it wants to focus more on digital news. 
 
 The paper was sold to tronc Inc. last year for $1, with the owner of the Chicago Tribune assuming liabilities and debt. 
 
 In an email sent to staff Monday, tronc said staff at the Daily News will focus on breaking news involving "crime, civil justice and public responsibility." 
 
 Revenue and print circulation have been sliding at the newspaper for years, even as it provided critical coverage of health issues in public housing and for first responders after the Sept. 11 attacks. 
 
 Revenue slid 22 percent between 2014 and 2016, and the paper had already been letting people go. 
 
 "Since the year began, we've worked hard to transform the New York Daily News into a truly digitally-focused enterprise - one that creates meaningful journalism, delivers it more quickly and more frequently, and develops new approaches to engage our readers," an email sent to staff said. "We've gained a deeper understanding of our readership. We've redefined our structures. But we have not gone far enough." 
 
 Editor-in-chief Jim Rich and Managing Editor Kristen Lee are both included in the layoffs. 
 
 Robert York, editor of Tronc-owned The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania, will take over as editor of The Daily News. 
 
 Tronc Inc., based in Chicago, owns the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, the Orlando Sentinel, and other media operations. ||||| To put a twist on one of the most famous front pages in history: “Tronc to New York Daily News: Drop Dead!” 
 
 That’s what it feels like today in the wake of the publisher’s decision to lay off half the editorial staff at the storied tabloid, leaving a skeleton crew to run a newspaper that covers national news, issues, and events impacting the biggest city in the country. The rumors started circulating last week, and on Sunday, Tronc sent an email to staffers prepping them for “an important message from Grant Whitmore,” Tronc’s eastern region general manager. 
 
 This morning, the axe dropped: 
 
 “We are fundamentally restructuring the Daily News,” says an email from Tronc to staff. “We are reducing today the size of the editorial team by approximately 50 percent and re-focusing much of our talent on breaking news — especially in areas of crime, civil justice and public responsibility.” 
 
 The realignment of the priorities of the paper, which has a largely working-class readership and a history of uncovering municipal corruption and City Hall scandal, aroused outrage from many commenters, including former News reporter Tom Robbins: 
 
 Just some of the stories broken by the @NYDailyNews in past few weeks: 
 
 –A mini race-riot among FDNY members in the Bronx; 
 
 –NYPD failure to discipline officers despite blatant evidence; 
 
 –NYPD move to charge Pantaleo in Garner death; 
 
 –Non-stop exclusives re NYCHA scandal. — Tom Robbins (@tommy_robb) July 23, 2018 
 
 It’s just the latest round of cuts at the financially struggling Daily News, which Tronc bought last summer for $1, promptly terminating some roles at the paper and moving some functions to the publisher’s Chicago headquarters.
– The New York Daily News will this week become half of what it once was, at least in terms of staff. Parent company Tronc, which acquired the paper in September for $1, on Monday announced in a memo that it would be cutting its editorial staff by roughly 50% to focus more on digital news and "address the significant financial challenges we have faced for years." The AP reports revenues sank 22% between 2014 and 2016, and prior cuts had taken place. Those ousted include editor-in-chief Jim Rich, who NPR reports communicated his displeasure on Twitter, where he changed his bio to "Just a guy sitting at home watching journalism being choked into extinction." The New York Times, which reports the newsroom staff had numbered 75 to 100, notes he tweeted the following at 1:40am Monday, "If you hate democracy and think local governments should operate unchecked and in the dark, then today is a good day for you." Robert York, editor of the Tronc-owned Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., will fill the slot. The memo says editorial efforts will be refocused around breaking news, "especially in areas of crime, civil justice and public responsibility. ... We will, of course, continue to cover local news, sports and other events, but our approach will evolve as we adapt to our current environment." Those given the boot will receive 90 days of severance. Marcus Baram worked for the paper in the late '90s and reports on how low morale was prior to these cuts in a piece for Fast Company.