LOS ANGELES—The Press-Telegram and Daily Breeze, two newspapers owned by ap Inc., will cut staff and merge their Internet, copy editing and pagination operations in response to sagging ad revenue, an editor said Monday.
The move involves the loss of nine jobs at the Daily Breeze, located in Torrance, and about 10 jobs at the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, Daily Breeze editor Phillip Sanfield said.
In addition, Mark Ficarra, who was named publisher of the Daily Breeze in January, will also become publisher of the Press-Telegram.
The positions of current Press-Telegram publisher Dave Kuta and managing editor John Futch were eliminated. They will leave the company.
“We are in an incredibly difficult market right now,” Sanfield said. “These are really good people on both sides, at the Breeze and the P-T, but we are just going to have to make this work in a positive way.”
Under a reorganization to be in place Thursday, the two papers are forming a 24-person copy editing and pagination unit at the Daily Breeze that will handle both papers.
A five-person team will handle the Web sites of both papers.
The newspapers will still be printed separately. The Daily Breeze has a circulation of 65,000. The Press-Telegram’s circulation is about 88,000.
Photographers, editors and reporters for the papers will remain in their respective offices, Sanfield said. The two newspapers employ a total of 111 editorial workers, he added.
The Daily News of Los Angeles, another MediaNews publication, said last week that its newsroom would lose 22 jobs, bringing its editorial staff down to 100.
Denver-based MediaNews is a privately owned chain that operates 57 daily newspapers including The Denver Post, The Salt Lake Tribune and others with weekday circulation of 2.6 million.
Phone messages left with the company seeking comment were not immediately returned.
Last month, Denver-based MediaNews reported net income rose 34 percent in the fourth quarter to $17.4 million, but revenue dropped 7 percent to $345.2 million, as advertising revenue fell 14 percent from the prior year, including a 30 percent drop in classified ads.
Dean Singleton, the company’s vice chairman and chief executive, is chairman of The Associated Press, a not-for-profit cooperative owned by its member news organizations.
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