Gannett starts new round of staff reductions

Gannett, the largest newspaper chain in the United States, began another round of layoffs Thursday, joining a host of other media companies cutting jobs in recent weeks.

Employees at Gannett’s newspapers, which include USA Today, The Indianapolis Star and the Detroit Free Press, began receiving layoff notifications Thursday, part of an effort to cut about 6% of the roughly 3,440-person U.S. media division.

Word of the notifications spread quickly among Gannett employees. At USA Today, journalists received invitations on their employee calendars to join meetings with editors and human resources representatives.

The layoffs are the latest in a series of cost-cutting measures by Gannett, which in August eliminated about 400 jobs and said it would not fill hundreds of open positions. More spending cuts were announced in October, when Gannett’s chief executive, Mike Reed, told employees that the company would offer voluntary buyouts and require workers to take unpaid leave.

The latest cuts were signaled in a mid-November email to employees from Henry Faure Walker, chief executive of Gannett’s British media group Newsquest.

“While we have taken several steps already, we must enter the new year in a stronger economic position, and the reality is that our news cost base is currently too high for the revenues it generates,” Walker wrote. “Regretfully, this means we will be implementing further reductions.”

Also last month, Maribel Wadsworth Perez, the president of Gannett Media, announced that she was leaving the company at the end of the year, telling employees she planned to take time to “catch my breath and prioritize my family.”

Gannett has battled a sagging share price in recent years as revenue from printed newspapers has continued to wane. The company has sought to offset the declining print business with digital subscription revenue and marketing services, but revenue has declined this year amid a difficult ad market.