Seattle Times Publisher and Chief Executive Frank Blethen painted a dark picture of the newspaper's near-term future in a year-end memo sent Thursday to staff members, hinting at deep cuts without mentioning layoffs.
Thursday's five-page memo "is the first shoe, and the other will be dropping soon," said Guild administrative officer Liz Brown. She said that The Times' 2008 budget will likely be presented to the board of directors when it meets Jan. 17, and that any cuts will likely occur after that.
The McClatchy Company owns 49.5 percent of the voting common stock and 70.6 percent of the nonvoting common stock of The Seattle Times Co.
