Gannett is cutting 1,000 newspaper jobs

— Gannett Co. is eliminating 1,000 jobs, including 600 layoffs, across its newspaper operations, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.

USA Today, the largest-circulation newspaper in the country, wasn't affected by the latest round of cutbacks, but had 45 job cuts of its own last November.

The latest cuts will affect Gannett's other newspapers, which include 84 dailies such as The Arizona Republic and the Detroit Free Press as well as nearly 900 non-daily publications.

The cost-cutting drive at the country's largest newspaper publisher is the latest effort by the industry to cope with declining revenues due to an economic slump and a continuing migration of advertising dollars online.

In addition to the 600 layoffs, Gannett will also eliminate 400 jobs through attrition and leaving vacant posts unfilled, said company spokeswoman Tara Connell. The cutbacks represent about 3 percent of the work force at Gannett's local newspaper division.

News of the job cuts was reported Wednesday on a blog run by a former editor and reporter at Gannett, who obtained a company memo addressed to publishers. The publishers were asked to notify employees of the cuts by Friday.

Other major newspaper publishers have also been slashing jobs, including McClatchy Co., which said in June it would eliminate 1,400 jobs, or about 10 percent of its work force. McClatchy is also instituting a yearlong pay freeze across the company starting Sept. 1.

Sacramento, Calif.-based McClatchy's papers include The Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee.

Gannett is also cutting costs in other ways, including centralizing customer service, printing, financial and other functions and outsourcing some operations, Connell said.

Gannett shares rose $2.05, or 10.6 percent, to $21.31 in afternoon trading.