Reports: Gannett to Cut More Jobs (Update)

(Update includes revision of layoff projections, photo gallery of media layoffs, and updates of company's stock price.)

A range of anonymous sources both on blogs and in the mainstream press are reporting that Gannett(GCI Quote), publisher of the USA Today, will announce a slew of layoffs after the July 4 holiday.

Reported figures are as low as 1,000 people and as high as 4,500.

The moves come at a time when the newspaper publishing business has been laid low by the recession -- and a consequent collapse in ad volumes and rates -- and caught by the Internet's inexorable transformation of the news-consuming culture. Print news executives have been scrambling to figure out a way to shift their business models to deal with the latter.

Like many other publishers, Gannett is also laboring under a heavy debt load ($3.7 billion at last count) even while its cash flow has been severely curtailed. In February, Moody's cut the company's bonds to junk. Violations of debt covenants have become a real possibility.

Thus, Gannett executives have been saying for some time to expect cost-reduction moves of one kind or another -- which almost always, of course, involve layoffs. The McLean, Va., newspaper group, which also owns radio and TV stations, employed 41,500 people as of the end of 2008, after firing some 4,600 people last year. Its profit in the latest quarter fell 60% from the 2008 period, while ad sales declined 34%.

Reflecting the new dour paradigm, Gannett shares have plunged from their all-time highs, reached mid-decade, of more than $90. They were trading Wednesday at $3.67, up 10 cents on the session on light volume.