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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/15815023.htm
Mercury News announces it will lay off 101 employees
By Pete Carey
Mercury News
The Mercury News announced Friday that it will lay off 8.5 percent of its work force -- 101 employees -- by Dec. 19 as a long-running slide in revenues across the newspaper industry continues.
It is the second time in less than a year that the San Jose newspaper, which employs roughly 1,160 people, has cut its staffing levels. In November 2005, the newspaper reduced staff through voluntary buyouts, 52 of which were in the news operation.
Of the layoffs announced Friday, about 40 will come out of the newsroom, a 14 percent cut.
``I'm sorry to have to stand before you today, again, with some bad news,'' executive editor Susan Goldberg said at an afternoon meeting of newsroom employees. ``The economics of our industry continue to slide downward.''
Revenue declines have hit newspapers across the country this year, many of which have reduced staff. The slide has been sharp across advertising sectors, including real estate, job placement and automotive.
Publisher George Riggs, who is also president of the California Newspapers Partnership, which controls the Mercury News, said in a letter to employees that any increase in revenue could reduce the need for layoffs. There are also three union contracts under negotiation and, depending on the outcome, Riggs said, they could lead to ``further expense reductions'' that might lower the number of layoffs.
The Newspaper Guild's local bargaining committee, which represents the newsroom's union workers, said in a statement that it is concerned MediaNews is ``reacting precipitously to quarterly results by taking steps that will further diminish our newspaper.''
Like other public and private newspaper companies in the United States, Riggs said, MediaNews is seeing the migration of ad revenue to the Internet. The Denver-based newspaper group recently purchased the Mercury News, Contra Costa Times and Monterey Herald and added them to its California partnership with Gannett and Stephens Media.
Other MediaNews papers around the Bay Area are experiencing the same pressures. On Wednesday, Contra Costa Times publisher John Armstrong said in a letter to staff that a ``sharp and rather sudden decline'' in real estate advertising had dragged down that paper's revenues and that it must lower costs.
According to my kakulashuns, theat leaves 1087 to go.
Let's Roll.
The slide has been sharp across advertising sectors, including real estate, job placement and automotive.and that's because nobody out there is buying or selling houses, hiring new people or selling new and used cars... is that what they are trying to tell us??? please.