LOS ANGELES — Tribune Co. took a big step toward easing shareholder anger this week when it opened the door to a broad restructuring of the company, but it still faces unrest at its biggest and most important property — the Los Angeles Times.

The publisher and editor at the newspaper, the fourth largest in the country, have so far pulled off what few would dare attempt: a public refusal to implement corporate-mandated cost cuts. So far, they haven't been fired.

The situation has industry observers wondering just how executives at Chicago-based Tribune will handle Publisher Jeffrey Johnson and Editor Dean Baquet, whose resistance to further cuts to the Pulitzer-winning newspaper's staff is one of several critical issues facing the parent company.

"I cannot recall a single incident of a publisher and editor of a major newspaper such as the Los Angeles Times telling their corporate headquarters to go get stuffed, which is what has been said in Los Angeles," said Conrad C. Fink, who teaches newspaper management at the University of Georgia.

Like many old media companies, Tribune is struggling with declining advertising and circulation as readers age and younger consumers turn to Web sites for news.

Meanwhile, shareholders have been clamoring for the results that were promised when the company bought Times-Mirror in 2000 for about $8 billion.

While the Chicago Tribune is the namesake paper of the Tribune media empire, the Times is its single largest asset, accounting for nearly 20 percent of its 2005 revenue of $5.6 billion, according to sources cited by the Times.

This year, the Times, with 940 editorial positions, is expected to generate pretax profit of about $250 million based on a profit margin of 20 percent.

The Tribune wants the Times to keep expenses flat for 2007, a goal that would involve cutting about $3 million from the editorial budget, according to a Times executive who requested anonymity because he was not in a position to disclose the information publicly.

Tribune has called for cuts at all its newspapers, which include The Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel and Newsday.

On Thursday, Tribune's board voted unanimously to consider corporate restructuring options. The board is expected to decide on a course by year's end.

Chief Executive Dennis FitzSimons said the plans would not include selling the Times. He declined to say whether the board discussed the management revolt at the paper.

The Times has already cut 200 editorial positions during the past five years.

"I just have a difference of opinion with the owners of Tribune about what the size of the staff should be," Baquet said in a Sept. 14 Times story. "To make substantial reductions would significantly damage the quality of the paper."

Johnson agreed, saying "newspapers can't cut their way into the future."

The Times editorial staff has rallied behind Johnson and Baquet and sent a letter supporting them to Tribune executives.

The response from Tribune has been measured, with FitzSimons defending the company's stewardship of the Times.

That FitzSimons didn't immediately fire Johnson and Baquet has some perplexed.

"You either choose to do what you've been ordered to do or you don't belong in the position," said Jay T. Harris, a former publisher of the San Jose Mercury News who quit the paper in 2001 before publicly challenging parent company Knight Ridder Inc. over budget issues.

Johnson seemed to soften his stance this week after meeting with Scott Smith, president of Tribune Publishing. In a memo sent to Times staffers Wednesday, Johnson emphasized cooperation and shared goals between the newspaper and its owner.

Analysts said resolving the Times-Tribune feud is critical because of the ripple effects it could have on Tribune's other media properties, which have also made unpopular cuts to meet corporate profit goals.

"That's where Dennis FitzSimons and Scott Smith are in a tight crack," Fink said. "They're now in a position of telling executives at their other outposts that 'Johnson and Baquet can tell us this but you cannot.' "

Last year, Times editor John Carroll and publisher John Puerner left over a dispute with Tribune about budget cuts. Carroll, who helped persuade Baquet to stay and succeed him as editor, said Tribune has to carefully consider its next move.

"Two publishers in a row, who were career Tribune executives, and both have been accused of having 'gone native,' " Carroll said. "Maybe there is something to the native point of view."