UPDATE 1-Tribune job cuts highlight bad year for newspapers

(Adds details on Hartford Courant job cuts, background, byline)

By Robert MacMillan and Kenneth Li

NEW YORK, June 25 (Reuters) - Tribune Co will cut jobs at The Sun in Baltimore and Hartford Courant as the company struggles with falling advertising revenue, making it the latest publisher to trim staff in one of the worst years yet for the newspaper business.

The Sun will lose 100 jobs, 60 of them in the newsroom, the Baltimore Newspaper Guild said in a statement on Wednesday, while the Courant will cut about 60 jobs, the paper reported on its website.

A Tribune spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The cuts are part of Tribune's plan to avoid defaulting on its loans as it races to sell off properties and aggressively slash costs. Tribune agreed in May to sell its Newsday paper to Cablevision Systems Corp (CVC.N) for about $650 million.

The cuts come after Tribune said it would cut jobs at two of its other big papers, the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. They also come on the same day Cox Newspapers announced 300 job cuts at the Palm Beach Post in Florida.

The job losses are the latest incidents in what is shaping up to be a bloody summer for U.S. papers. With advertisement revenue falling at unprecedented levels as people move to the Internet and wider economic woes gouge advertising budgets, newspaper publishers are shedding staff as fast as they can.

Last week, Miami Herald and Sacramento Bee publisher McClatchy Co (MNI.N) said it would get rid of about 10 percent of its staff. Other publishers lightening their payroll include Media General Inc (MEG.N), publisher of the Tampa Tribune and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, as well as The New York Times (NYT.N) and The Washington Post (WPO.N).