Pink-Slipped Journos Feeling Blue in R.I. & Mass.

The Providence Journal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's the same musical refrain: shrinking circulation, declining ad revenues and a redirection toward digital editions, but it has New England journalists singing the blues.

WPRI.com reported this week that The Providence Journal trimmed its 460-member workforce by 5 percent, including three photographers among the 23 employees given their walking papers. The Journal, which also saw 11 staffers accept a voluntary buyout in September, must make do with its remaining 10 photographers.

Journal parent company A.H. Belo pointed to sagging advertising linage, noting a 13 percent plunge in advertising revenue during the 3Q of 2012, compared to the same three-month period ending September 30 a year ago.

Meanwhile, The Boston Globe Web site, boston.com, reported this week that the Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. ("CNH") chain, whose stable of dailies includes The Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, Gloucester Daily Times, Salem News, The Daily (Newburyport) News, also slashed 5 percent of its 375-member workforce, cutting 21 jobs.

CNH, which is headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, did not detail which papers would be impacted, though it was reported elsewhere that the Eagle-Tribune (against whom the ink-stained staff of "TUOL" competed at a rival paper back in the day) lost a couple of reporters.

Ala. Parent Co. Slashes 36 Jobs at Mass. Dailies

Image via WikipediaThe North of Boston Media Group has eliminated 36 full- and part-time positions at area daily and weekly newspapers, member paper The Newburyport News reports.

Declining ad space and a dropoff in circulation are to blame for the cutbacks that affect the News, The Eagle-Tribune, The Salem News, The Gloucester Daily Times and weeklies The Andover Townsman, Derry News, the Carriage Towne News and The Haverhill Gazette (full disclosure: the tireless staff of "TUOL" toiled at the Haverhill Gazette back in the day when it was a daily newspaper, part of the Scripps League chain).

The Mass. papers are owned by Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. ("CNHI"), a media conglomerate that serves 150 communities in 24 states, according to its Web site.  Coincidentally, the grim news in the Bay State comes the same day as CNHI announced the upcoming relocation of its headquarters from Birmingham, Ala., to a 12-story office building under construction in the state capital of  Montgomery in the historic downtown district, which is expected later this year or in early 2012.

Must be a nice building, as CNHI already bled 52 jobs from The North of Boston Media Group as part of a 2008 restructuring.