Mercury News lays off 31 employees
Sacramento Business Journal
One Sacramento-bureau reporter was among the 31 employees laid off Monday from the newsroom staff at the San Jose Mercury News. Another 15 newsroom employees voluntarily resigned in recent weeks.
More than a dozen of the 31 layoffs were reporters, said Alvie Lindsay, capitol bureau chief for the Mercury News.
The Mercury News, owned by Media News Group Inc., blamed the layoffs on declining advertising revenue and a challenging market for newspapers across the country.
The paper now has a newsroom staff of 200, about half what it was in 2000 at the height of the dot-com boom. The staff was told earlier this month that the paper would shed about 40 people from its newsroom. All reporters were asked to be at home by the phone between 8 and 10 a.m. Monday, Lindsay said. Those who were laid off were given a call between those hours, he said.
The Mercury News still has three reporters in its Sacramento bureau. There also is one reporter for the Contra Costa Times, one for the Oakland Tribune and one for the Los Angeles Daily News in that same bureau.
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