Gannett Cuts Jobs in Middle Tennessee and Company Wide

Layoffs were carried out on Tuesday at several Gannett newspapers in Middle Tennessee, including The Tennessean, Nashville’s daily newspaper.

Gannett, sent an internal memo on Monday announcing a coming cut of about 2 percent of its workforce.

According to a report by Politico, Gannett, the largest newspaper group in the country, will shave off at least 350 jobs across its more than 100 properties.

The Tennessean did not publicly detail the actions, but at least five people were eliminated from the news department in Nashville, and others were let go at The Gallatin News Examiner and the Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro. In Middle Tennessee, Gannett also owns The Leaf Chronicle in Clarksville, the Ashland City Times, and the Dickson Herald. The company also owns The Jackson (Tenn.) Sun and recently acquired The Commercial Appeal in Memphis and the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Gannett’s strategy of consolidating and streamlining continues, though its stock price has fallen 35 percent this year amid rumors of a pending purchase of Tronc, parent company of nine newspapers including the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune.

Gannett’s third-quarter statement will come out Thursday, and according to various reports it will be bad, with print ad revenue losses said to be anywhere between 5 and 12 percent.

Each time in the past decade that Gannett has cut jobs, some of those have come from The Tennessean.

The Tennessean went through rounds of layoffs and buyouts in 2008 (92 employees), 2009 (35), 2011 (34), 2013 (16) and 2014 (6).