Gannett, the owner of USA Today, slashed more than 200 jobs on Thursday in its first big downsizing since its takeover by New Media Investment Group’s GateHouse Media last month.
At least 20% of the cuts hit newsrooms, reports The NY Post.
Gannett, which did not change its name as a result of the merger, did not confirm the cuts. The tally was provided by a crowd-sourced spreadsheet on media website Poynter.org, which counted 204 cuts by the end of Friday across 46 daily papers, including the elimination of 41 newsroom jobs.
The Indianapolis Star was the hardest hit, with 29 jobs whacked and six newsroom positions cut. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel saw 11 positions eliminated, including buyouts for seven reporters and one editor. The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, lost nine people.
But Thursday’s layoffs were from all over, including Fort Myers, Florida; Knoxville, Tennessee; upstate New York (Rochester and Poughkeepsie); and Detroit, where the Free Press staff was trimmed by at least four by those requesting a layoff package. Other papers, as well as USA Today and the USA Today sports media group, were impacted as well. The cuts included non-newsroom jobs.
There was one report that Gannett was asking those laid off to sign non-disclosure agreements to get severance, as well as telling its journalists to stop tweeting about the layoffs.
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