According to a report in the Independent on Sunday, the Barclay brothers will have to make the cost cuts to claw back savings after their bid climbed to almost £700m.
A source quoted by the paper said: "They can not justify paying £665m without some major surgery in the medium term. Editorially and commercially, it has to be improved."
Talk of the job cuts came as Lord Black's threat of legal action to block the sale gathered steam, with a Delaware court giving him the go-ahead to launch legal action.
Lord Black is now expected to file a suit within days, with the aim of calling for a shareholder vote. Lord Black holds the majority of voting shares in Hollinger International.
The Barlcay brothers won the battle for The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator, after a final shootout against private equity group 3i, which was being advised by David Montgomery.
As part of the 3i bid, Montgomery was reported to have included detailed cost-cutting plans should the private equity firm be successful.
The loss-making Scotsman has been restructured under editor-in-chief Andrew Neil, with editorial desks of sister newspapers The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday combining, resulting in a number of redundancies.
As well as editorial cutbacks, The Scotsman has seen back office functions outsourced to reduce headcount.
The cost cutting was highly successful for the north of the border newspaper group with pre-tax profits last year more than doubling to £8.2m, up from £4.1m a year ago, although the circulation story was less so. Under the Barclays, sales have fallen from more than 80,000 to just more than 60,000.
Another surprise in store for Telegraph staff could be the arrival of Andrew Neil in a top role. Initially, it was believed there would be no role for the former Sunday Times editor, but the Barclays are understood to have told him that they want him to have a role.
It has been suggested that Neil could take over as chief executive. One of the first decisions the brothers made last week was to appoint Aidan Barclay, the son of Sir David Barclay, as chairman of the Telegraph Group, the post formerly held by Lord Conrad Black.
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