COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The Gazette laid off 11 employees Friday, including seven in the newsroom, leaving fewer than 300 people on the staff.
Three employees in circulation and one in advertising also were cut, President and Publisher Steve Pope said. The newspaper employed nearly 500 people in early 2007 but has cut its staff through attrition and several rounds of layoffs as advertising revenues have dipped across the industry.
Pope said deteriorating economic conditions, particularly among retailers, auto dealers and the real estate industry, prompted cuts in the 2010 budget, triggering the layoffs.
The company tried to avoid layoffs through mandatory furloughs, a 5 percent salary cut for all employees and a variety of cost-cutting measures this year, including trimming pages from the printed newspaper, he said.
Competition from online outlets has eaten into advertising revenue and circulation across the industry.
Advertising revenue for U.S. newspapers was down 29.9 percent in the first half of the year to $12.1 billion, according to the Newspaper Association of America.
Average daily circulation at 379 U.S. newspapers fell 10.6 percent in the April-September period from the same six-month stretch last year, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported last month.
The Gazette’s average paid circulation for Mondays through Saturdays during that period fell 7.8 percent from a year ago to 88,801, while Sunday circulation was down 6.2 percent to 100,762.
However, Gazette officials said, page views for are up 22 percent this year.
The Gazette is owned by Irvine, Calif.-based Freedom Communications Inc., which has been operating in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since Sept. 1.
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Information from: The Gazette,
