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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, August 15, 2008

Gannett to lay off 600, cut 1,000 jobs

Associated Press

NEW YORK — The Honolulu Advertiser's parent company, Gannett Co., is eliminating 1,000 jobs, including 600 layoffs, across its newspaper operations, a company spokeswoman said yesterday.

The new job cuts do not include any positions at The Advertiser, but the newspaper just last week eliminated 54 positions and has not ruled out further reductions.

Advertiser publisher Lee Webber sent an e-mail to employees yesterday saying, "I wish I could tell you this will be the end of it, but that is not possible, given the current state of the economy and the newspaper publishing industry."

USA Today, the largest-circulation newspaper in the country, also wasn't affected by the latest round of cutbacks, but had 45 job cuts of its own in November.

The latest cuts will affect Gannett's other newspapers, which include 84 dailies such as The Arizona Republic and the Detroit Free Press as well as nearly 900 nondaily publications. The cost-cutting drive at the country's largest newspaper publisher is the latest effort by the industry to cope with declining revenues due to an economic slump and a continuing migration of advertising dollars online.

In addition to the 600 layoffs, Gannett will also eliminate 400 jobs through attrition and leavevacant posts unfilled, said company spokeswoman Tara Connell. The cutbacks represent about 3 percent of the work- force. News of the job cuts was reported Wednesday on a blog run by a former editor and reporter at Gannett, who obtained a company memo addressed to publishers. The publishers were asked to notify employees of the cuts by today.

Other major newspaper publishers have also been slashing jobs, including McClatchy Co., which said in June it would eliminate 1,400 jobs, or about 10 percent of its workforce. McClatchy is also instituting a yearlong pay freeze across the company starting Sept. 1. Gannett is also cutting costs in other ways, including centralizing customer service, printing, financial and other functions and outsourcing some operations, Connell said.

Gannett shares rose $2.05, or 10.6 percent, to $21.31 in afternoon trading.

Webber said the company and the newspaper industry face tough times. "As we at the Advertiser continue to navigate these turbulent times future economic conditions will dictate the possibilities of any further staffing reductions," he said.