Gannett to end up eliminating 2,000

Editor & Publisher is reporting that the latest Gannett newspaper job cuts at Gannett will end up eliminating about 2,000 positions across all of the company's 85 daily papers, except the Detroit Free Press and USA Today, according to Tara Connell, the company's vice president of corporate communications.

Connell told E&P that until now, Corporate did not know how many jobs were being eliminated, because individual papers decided how many cuts to make and where. "We said that it was going to be locally decided and locally managed and that is exactly what happened," Connell told E&P.


Gannett's downsizing has now claimed 1,786 newspaper jobs, according to a new Gannett Blog reader tally. The Salinas Californian eliminated a whopping 31% of its 130 jobs -- one of the biggest percentage losses yet.

General Manager Terry Fenberg was struggling to find something to say when he told his paper: "As difficult as this is, it does provide us with an opportunity to take a look at everything we do.'' The paper reports: "Layoffs started Tuesday and finished Wednesday, with 21 people losing their jobs immediately and another 14 positions to be cut over the next six to eight weeks. Four positions were removed through attrition, and one person took a voluntary buyout, for a total of 40 jobs eliminated.''