Gannett's USA Today to Cut 130 Jobs, Shuffles Management Posts

Gannett Co.’s USA Today, which lost more than 200,000 daily readers in the past year, said it is cutting 130 jobs as part of a restructuring of the newspaper’s business operations.

USA Today Publisher David Hunke said in an e-mail today that the newspaper created three new divisions and will reduce its staff by about 9 percent over the next three months. He said the job cuts would come from various departments.

The changes are designed to help USA Today deliver news in print, digital and mobile form, the company said in a statement. The new divisions are focused on integrated business development, design and product development and digital asset development. The newspaper appointed executives in charge of the units today.

USA Today’s average daily circulation in the six months through March declined 14 percent to 1.8 million, compared with an industrywide drop of 8.7 percent, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations data. It is the second-largest U.S. newspaper by circulation, after News Corp.’s Wall Street Journal.

Gannett, which also publishes the Des Moines Register and Detroit Free Press, posted a 6.8 percent drop in newspaper advertising to $1.34 billion in the first six months of the year. Total revenue dropped 2.8 percent to $2.66 billion.

Gannett, based in McLean, Virginia, added 33 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $12.51 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares dropped 16 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Bensinger in New York at gbensinger1@bloomberg.net

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