Gannett Co, the newspaper publisher that reported a 32 per cent drop in quarterly profit last week, plans to eliminate about 10 per cent of jobs at its US newspapers as advertising sales continue to decline.
The cuts should be completed by early December and don’t apply to USA Today, spokeswoman Tara Connell said in an interview on Wednesday. She declined to give a total number and said firings would be “significantly less” than the 3,000 reported by a blogger.
The reductions come on top of 1,000 positions, or about 3 per cent of the community publishing workforce, eliminated in August.
Gannett, which owns 85 daily newspapers, said last week it planned to cut more jobs and evaluate its dividend after third-quarter revenue fell 9 per cent, led by an 18 per cent drop in publishing ad sales.
The company told individual newspaper publishers to submit their reductions by November 14, Connell said.
Each publication will make its own firing decisions, she said.