As expected, after announcing that Gannett Co.'s profits fell 32 percent due to declining ad revenue, the nation's largest newspaper publisher will eliminate 10 percent of its work force by early December. Reuters estimates some 3,200 positions will be eliminated.
This past summer the company announced over 1,000 job cuts and in September longtime executives Pat Bienvenu and Julio Naudin at The Daily Advertiser were laid off. In Lafayette, Gannett owns The Advertiser, The Times of Acadiana and the Quik Quarter, as well as the Daily World in Opelousas, The Monroe News-Star, The Shreveport Times and The Town Talk in Alexandria.
Gannett's not alone in its publishing woes. So far in 2009, more than 12,000 jobs have been cut from the newspaper industry nationwide. Yesterday, the Christian Science Monitor announced that it would cease publishing its weekday paper in April 2009 and would migrate its news outfit to CSMonitor.com. The world's largest magazine publisher, Time Inc. will also cut its work force by 6 percent, eliminating more than 600 jobs.