Gannnett Cuts More Jobs

My heart goes out to anyone who works at a Gannett newspaper right now after Gannett announced yesterday it would cut 1,400 jobs or 3 percent of its workforce.

It has to be terrible waiting for the ax to fall. One friend who has survived previous cuts at the Asbury Park Press, my old newspaper, says she doesn't know if she'll survive this one. I think she has a good shot because she's a great reporter with years at the newspaper. But even if you do manage to keep your job, you have to watch colleagues and friends leaving. It has to be like going to work at a wake.

Gannett, like other newspaper companies, has been suffering from declines in ads and reported a 34 percent drop in the first quarter, according to the Associated Press. It looks like the cuts won't affect U.S.A. Today, Gannett's flagship newspaper.

There have been 10, 103 newspaper job cuts in the U.S. this year alone, according to the Paper Cuts blog, which features a map showing that the cuts are all across the country with huge clusters in the northeast.

More bad news for reporters, writers and editors and more bad news for all of us out there looking for work. If there's a bright side to all this downsizing I'm having trouble seeing it right now.