As Gannett, GateHouse merge, newspaper cost-cutting persists

NEW YORK – Just a week after announcing its $1.4 billion acquisition of Gannett, GateHouse Media was again laying off journalists and other workers at its newspapers. These cuts may foreshadow what awaits employees of what will become the largest U.S. newspaper company.

GateHouse and Gannett say the merger will accelerate its newspapers’ move to digital while paying down huge sums GateHouse borrowed in order to fund the acquisition. But it’s unclear exactly how it will make that happen.

Many in the newsrooms and the communities that depend on those newspapers are mourning the changes wrought by previous GateHouse cuts and bracing for more. Others argue that being part of a larger chain is the only route to survival for smaller papers often still struggling to migrate their publications online.