The job cuts are beginning to come down at the Star Tribune, but in a weird development, so are the new positions. This all knits together, I think, so stay with me on this.

First, sources (who are unnamed because they are not authorized to speak) say assistant managing editor for features Christine Ledbetter has been let go. Ledbetter is a relatively new hire, recruited in 2007 from the Chicago Sun-Times when the features desk was much more prominent within the hierarchy than it is now. (Update: City Pages' Kevin Hoffman notes Ledbetter came in just as a lot of Stribbers were being cut.)

While I'm still waiting for the authorized sources to call me back, in the Avista post-redesign area, the Strib has cut features more than, say, metro reporting, and this may continue and deepen that strategy.

Ledbetter's is not a union position, by the way; assistant managing editors are fairly high up in the org chart, so this may be a way to show the troops that even the bosses are not safe. The Strib announced plans to cut 30 of 275 newsroom positions in November, and 100 all told company-wide.

At first blush, the other move is more curious: management actually posted 4.5 new jobs Tuesday, says Newspaper Guild co-chair Janet Moore. The four full-time, one 30-hour union positions are described as "team leader/slot." At the Strib, a team leader is an editor who supervises reporters in a specific topic area, like, say, Minneapolis (which includes courts, cops, city hall, general assignment, etc.). The slot is usually the last copy editor who sees content before readers see it. I've heard talk for quite awhile that the Strib wants to cut down "touches" on stories — the number of people who review it. This, of course, can lead to efficiency (less screwing around with copy) or catastrophe (less fixing copy). I'm pretty sure I know how copy editors and more than a few reporters would vote.

I strongly suspect — but again, don't know — that this is four and a half steps forward before 30 steps back. The copy desk is considered a big target for the cuts (as are page designers) so the smushing of positions almost certainly enables that; a list of excised positions should come along any day now, perhaps even Wednesday.

Will let you know more when I know more.