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Gannett’s USAToday Will Cut 45 Newsroom Jobs; Buyouts First, Layoffs If Needed

By Staci D. Kramer - Thu 15 Nov 2007 01:16 PM PST

Gannett (NYSE: GCI) flagship USA Today is the latest paper to slash staff, cutting 45 newsroom jobs despite seeing recent gains in newspaper circulation. The paper will start with buyouts and proceed to layoffs if needed; staffers with 15-plus years of Gannett experience and less than five years of online experience. In a brief memo posted on Romenesko, USA Today editor Ken Paulson explained: “It’s unfortunate that we have to take these steps, particularly when our newspaper circulation is growing and USATODAY.com has been named the top news website in the country by the Online News Association. Unfortunately, revenue has not kept pace and we’re now facing the same cutbacks that so many other news organizations have already experienced.”

So far, none of the comments we’ve been hearing lately from other publishers about reinvesting some of the savings into new media.

Posted in: Companies, Gannett

Tags: usa today,

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From fdd Fri 16 Nov 2007 10:35 PM

Excellent point. I’m a low-level editor, and from what I’ve seen, newspapers are still tentative when it comes to new media, and trying to do it on the cheap.

From ITPubGuy Fri 23 Nov 2007 03:38 PM

Three days prior to this announcement, layoffs occured throughout the rest of the paper, including three in the Information Technology group, where two senior analysts working for the group that directly supports the paper’s publishing system were cut, with no buyout offered (both had under 15 yrs with the paper). The other IT layoff was in Planning and Fulfillment; that person had over 17 yrs with the paper and was also NOT offered the buyout, though by Editorial standards he was eligible.

One final note: The two managers whom these IT employees reported to directly were not told of the layoffs until AFTER the fact.