Guardian
Ben Dowell

The Sunday Times is poised to cut its overall editorial budget by 10% in a bid to reduce its losses, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.

It is understood that Sunday Times staff will be told later this week by publisher News International about plans to cut about £4m from the annual editorial budget of more than £40m, with some job losses.

These cuts are likely to lead to between 20 and 30 job losses from an editorial staff of about 400, with "structural changes to the product" also under serious consideration, according to senior sources.

The paper s Scottish operation is expected to bear the brunt of the job cuts, with a spokeswoman for the paper confirming yesterday that it will be reduced in size. The Sunday Times managing editor, Richard Caseby, visited the Scottish office yesterday to tell staff of plans to shrink the operation to a bureau with a handful of reporters.

It is understood that the 15 to 20 Scottish staff will now be cut to about four. It is thought that about 10 roles in London may be affected, although numbers are yet to be finalised. Caseby is expected to return to London today to inform staff of the cuts at the rest of the paper.

The new strategy and budgets will almost certainly have to be approved by July for the start of the Australian financial year employed by News Corporation, parent company of News International, which publishes the Sun, Sunday Times, the Times and News of the World.

The latest cuts have come in the wake of growing losses at the Times and Sunday Times.

Combined pre-tax losses for the two papers widened to £87.7m for the year to 28 June 2009, from £50.2m in the previous 12 months.

Turnover at Times Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that publishes the Times and Sunday Times, was down 13.4% year on year to £385.5m.

The company blamed the widening losses at Times Newspapers on declining advertising revenues.