Culturite

The Chicago Tribune is eliminating about 80 editorial positions — roughly 14 percent of its newsroom staff — amid parent Tribune Company’s campaign to cut costs as revenues decline.

Employees were informed of the impending job cuts Tuesday afternoon. Two people familiar with the situation have confirmed the total to The Associated Press. They have requested anonymity because the company hasn’t made a formal announcement.

One of the people tells the AP that the goal in this round of cuts is to trim $8.8 million in salary and benefits.

Newsroom employees were told 55 or 60 layoffs will be made by the end of August. The other 20 positions already are vacant.

Imprisoned quarterback Michael Vick filed for bankruptcy protection while serving time for federal dogfighting charges, saying he owes between $10 million and $50 million to creditors.

Vick filed Chapter 11 papers in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Newport News on Monday. The seven largest creditors listed in the court papers are owed a total of about $12.8 million.

Vick is serving a 23-month prison sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., after pleading guilty last year to bankrolling a dogfighting ring. He was subsequently suspended indefinitely without pay and lost all his major sponsors, including Nike. He also faces state charges related to dogfighting.

The suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback “will seek to rebuild his life and career” upon his release, according to the filings.

Less than a week after its deal with Shakira was confirmed, the entertainment marketing company Live Nation has signed the Canadian rock band Nickelback to another long-term worldwide contract for recordings, touring, merchandise and other rights, the company announced.

Nickelback, whose hits include “How You Remind Me” and “Photograph,” has sold more than 26 million albums around the world, and its most recent CD, “All the Right Reasons” (Roadrunner), has been on the Billboard 200 album chart longer than any other current release.

Financial terms were not released, but the contract is to cover three touring and album cycles, with an option for a fourth, according to the announcement.

By signing Nickelback, Live Nation, whose main business is concert promotion, took another step toward expanding its role at the center of the music industry, the traditional province of record labels. The company signaled on Tuesday that it may have more big deals to come.

Nickelback is the fourth act to sign a so-called multiple rights or “360” deal, and the company said it has planned to sign up four to six acts within a year. Besides Shakira, deals have been made with Madonna and Jay-Z, and a less extensive deal with U2, already announced, is expected to be completed soon.

The chairman of soft drinks giant Coca-Cola has defended the firm’s Olympic sponsorship in Beijing despite protests about China’s role in Tibet.

Neville Isdell told the BBC the firm supported the “credo of the Olympic movement”, and agreed deals well before it knew where each Games would be held.

The company, whose Olympic involvement dates back to 1928, was also a sponsor for the 1936 Games in Berlin.

Mr Isdell said he would have agreed to that deal too, had he been in charge.

“The sponsorship would have been committed four or five years ahead of that, and don’t forget Neville Chamberlain was in Berlin on a very popular mission to talk to Hitler,” he said.

“Not everything was known in 1938 and the Olympics were in 1936.”

Coca-Cola’s relationship with the games began with the 1928 Games in Amsterdam.

Other big brands associated with the Games include Adidas, McDonald’s, Kodak and VW.