Newspaper Layoffs Drop in February

Newspapers laid off fewer employees in February, as only 112 new job reductions were reported nationwide.

The caveat to this is that more than 600 employees of the Honolulu Advertiser have received notices of their possible layoff. They will lose their if David Black, owner of the Star-Bulletin, cannot find a buyer by May. If that happens, the two papers will merge and an undetermined number of layoffs will occur.

Here are February's layoff reports.

Feb. 26: Skagit Valley Herald of Mount Vernon, Wash., nine people, according to Paper Cuts.
Feb. 24: The Register-Guard of Eugene, Ore., 14 people.
Feb. 24: Paddock Publications will begin printing the Northwest Herald, the Daily Chronicle, the Kane County Chronicle and the Lake County Journal, The MidWeek and other Shaw Suburban Media newspapers at its production facility in Schaumburg, Ill., near Chicago by mid-April, 31 people will be affected.
Feb. 24: Sun Tribune in the Kansas City area, 10 people.
Feb. 22: Whitehorse (Wash.) Community News, at least one person.
Feb. 18: Wilmington (N.C.) Star News, two people, a managing editor and a photo editor.
Feb. 18: Minneapolis Star Tribune, up to five people are being sought for buyouts.
Feb. 16: Naples (Fla.) Daily News, at least seven people.
Feb. 15: Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune, two people.
Feb. 11: E.W. Scripps Co. will consolidate copy-desk operations of the Ventura County (Calif.) Star, the Redding (Calif.) Record Searchlight and the Kitsap (Wash.) Sun into the Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times, 15 people.
Feb. 6: Cincinnati Enquirer, 15 people.
Feb. 5: The Edmond (Okla.) Sun, one person -- a business reporter.

Here are the totals for 2010:

January -- 451 people.
February -- 93 people.

For a map that locates these layoffs and others, see Paper Cuts, a website by Erica Smith, who has been tracking newspaper layoffs since 2007.

All of News Cycle's monthly reports are categorized under Monthly Layoff Report.

A number of readers have asked by the discrepancy between our numbers and that of Paper Cuts. I counted in 2009's figures a large Gannett layoff that was announced in December last year, but was not effective until January. In addition, I have not counted the Honolulu figure of 600 as of yet.

Email me to report any job cuts in the newspaper industry.