Workers of the World...uh, we don't need you anymore, but here's a ham and thanks for your soul

This is getting depressing. A round up:

1)The New Hampshire Union Leader, the largest newspaper in the state, is looking to cut its payroll by 9% and is offering employees a voluntary buyout plan in an effort to avoid layoffs.

"We need to get our numbers in line in order to build for the future," Union Leader publisher Joseph McQuaid said in a story carried in Wednesday's edition of the newspaper. "A changing retail market and changes in how some consumers get their news and information requires us to rethink how we do business."

McQuaid declined to comment beyond the statement in the paper.

The New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News have more than 300 full-time employees. Pending agreement with their unions, all full-time employees would be eligible to submit buyout requests.

The papers are owned by a nonprofit organization, the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications. Loeb, who died in 2000, was the papers' publisher.

Newspapers across the country have been cutting staff and other expenses in recent months in an effort to remain profitable in the face of rising costs, declining circulation and stagnating growth in their main source of revenue -- advertising -- as more readers and advertisers move to the Internet.

The Union Leader's average weekday circulation declined 2.8% in the six-month period ending in September to 57,753, according to the most recent report by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

2) The New York Times Company's order cutting 160 positions in its New England group, announced in September, is heading to that goal, with 115 buyouts approved so far at The Boston Globe, Worcester Telegram & Gazette and Globe Specialty Products, Globe Publisher Richard Gilman announced today in a memo to staffers.

"These difficult decisions have been triggered by our need to respond to a rapidly changing media landscape, and put us in a stronger financial position to pursue our goals in 2006 and the years ahead," Gilman wrote.


3)In am memo to staffers at her paper late Tuesday, Kathy Waltz, publisher of the Orlando Sentinel, described how the previously announced job cuts broke down as the dust settled. In the end, the paper lost 54 positions in the general Tribune Co. cutbacks, with 33 being open positions, plus 21 layoffs. "Never before has our industry faced greater changes than we do today," Waltz said.

Nearly 2,000 newspaper jobs have been eliminated in 2005.

Ashley Allen, a Sentinel spokeswoman, told the Associated Press that some of cuts "did include some newsroom staff members. The small work force reduction [about 20 positions]a little over a year ago was mostly people on the business side."


4)It has not been a kind year for the newspaper industry.

With costs rising and circulation on the decline, newspaper companies have responded by trimming a considerable portion of their staffs this year. A review of past news reports offers up a startling number: more than 1,900 jobs have been cut from major and mid-sized newspapers over the past year. That figure does not include cuts at many smaller papers that don't often garner the same headlines.

The downsizing began in January with acquisition-related cuts at The Herald-Sun in Durham, N.C., and Dow Jones' Consumer Electronic Publishing group. The latest cuts came yesterday, as several of the Tribune Co.'s newspapers announced new plans to cut costs. In between, Knight Ridder's San Jose Mercury News cut close to 16% of its newsroom staff, while the Houston Chronicle trimmed about 7% of its total workforce.

The New York Times Co. raised eyebrows in September when it announced it was cutting 500 jobs across the company, including 45 newsroom positions at its flagship New York Times. Just four months earlier the company announced plans to shed 190 jobs across all divisions.

While no number will be entirely precise, a conservative estimate puts the total loss of newspaper jobs around 1,900 on the year. Below is a list of the major job cuts since Jan. 1, 2005:

2005 NEWSPAPER CUTS

TRIBUNE
PAPER # OF CUTS
Newsday 49
Hartford Courant 14
Baltimore Sun 75
LA Times 85
Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) 12
Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) 8
Chicago Tribune 100
Newsday TBD
Orlando Sentinel 54



NEW YORK TIMES CO.
PAPER # OF CUTS
NY Times 125
NEMG 65
NY Times 250
NEMG 160
Regional Media Group 80



KNIGHT RIDDER
PAPER # OF CUTS
Philadelphia Inquirer 75
Philadelphia Daily News 25
San Jose Mercury News 52



HEARST
PAPER # OF CUTS
SF Chronicle 120
Houston Chronicle 125



OTHERS
PAPER # OF CUTS
The (Durham, N.C.) Herald-Sun/Paxton 81
Seattle Times 99
Dow Jones Consumer Electronic Publishing 97
Boston Herald/Herald Media 35
Green Bay News-Chronicle/Gannett 14
St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Lee 130
Birmingham (Ala.) Post-Herald/Scripps 43