Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Gannett Co., the newspaper publisher that reported a 32 percent drop in quarterly profit last week, plans to eliminate about 10 percent of jobs at its U.S. newspapers as advertising sales continue to decline.

The cuts should be completed by early December and don't apply to USA Today, spokeswoman Tara Connell said in an interview today. She declined to give a total number and said firings would be ``significantly less'' than the 3,000 reported by a blogger.

The reductions come on top of 1,000 positions, or about 3 percent of the community publishing workforce, eliminated in August. Gannett, which owns 85 daily newspapers, said last week it planned to cut more jobs and evaluate its dividend after third-quarter revenue fell 9 percent, led by an 18 percent drop in publishing ad sales.

The company told individual newspaper publishers to submit their reductions by Nov. 14, Connell said. Each publication will make its own firing decisions, she said.

The cuts were reported earlier today by blogger Jim Hopkins, a former Gannett employee.

Gannett is trying to trim costs at a time when industry print ad sales have posted accelerating declines. U.S. newspaper circulation fell 4.6 percent in the past year, and the price of newsprint has risen at a record pace.

The 100-year-old Christian Science Monitor said today that it will stop printing a daily edition next year and focus on the Internet, becoming the first nationally distributed newspaper to do so. Last week New York Times Co. said it would consider cutting its dividend, and Standard & Poor's lowered the company's credit rating to junk.

Gannett, based in McLean, Virginia, rose $1.09, or 12 percent, to $10.22 at 4:03 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, tracking gains in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. The shares had lost 77 percent of their value this year before today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Rabil in New York at srabil@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 28, 2008 16:09 EDT