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MediaNews Group Outsources, Eliminates Jobs

MediaNews Group Inc. has eliminated jobs in its East Bay newspapers, in several locations. The cuts have affected every part of the publishing operation.

The cuts were necessitated by a steep decline in the housing market in the bay area, coupled with the ongoing migration of advertising money to the internet, writes the Contra Costa Times. Combined revenue for the East Bay papers were down more than 3 percent from a year ago, in the quarter ended in Sept.

According to John Armstrong, an executive with the newspapers, the cuts were broad but not deep, though he wouldn’t give the total number of cuts. Newspapers affected were the Contra Costa Times, The Argus, and other papers run by MediaNews in the East Bay.
Jobs were eliminated in the Contra Costa advertising production department, and its work will be outsourced to Express-KCS, a U.S. company with operations in India. San Jose Mercury News management will monitor the outsourcing to see if a similar move might make sense there, according to the article.

The cuts followed an announcement that San Ramon will be the new site of the California Newspaper Partnership, which is owned by MediaNews, Gannett and Stephens Media Group. About 170 people will work at the site. The site will provide shared services to the newspapers as the papers streamline production, “abandon unnecessary office space,” develop plans to build revenue, and “reposition ourselves to be a more powerful force on the internet,” Armstrong is quoted as saying.

Newspapers are increasingly reducing staff and increasing focus on the internet to countreract diminishing revenue. Gannett recently announced an initiative to turn the newsrooms of all its newspapers into “24-hour converged newsrooms.”

A recent, highly public battle between the Los Angeles Times and parent Tribune Company about staff cuts has served, for some, to underscore the severity of the struggle newspapers are facing in the U.S.