Layoffs hit Journal newsroom

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - New Mexico's only state-wide newspaper is shrinking as the slumping economy leads to cutbacks, consolidations and layoffs in the newsroom.

Albuquerque Journal subscribers will see some of the changes although readers in some communities will no longer be able to get the paper at all.

It was a dark day for Journal employees when at around 2:30 p.m. they were told who would lose their jobs.

While Journal management would only say there were fewer than 10 layoffs in the newsroom, KRQE News 13 has learned four reporters lost their jobs along with three others in copy and graphic design.

The Albuquerque Publishing Company, which prints the Journal, also announced staff reductions in its circulation, advertising, production and other departments. However again the company wouldn't give an exact number.  The city's other daily paper, The Albuquerque Tribune, ceased publication in February after decades of declining circulation.

Executives at the Journal and APC declined requests for on-camera interview. Instead they referred News 13 to a brief article on the Journal Web site .

That says "the economic environment" has forced "newsrooms across the country to make painful decisions."

Last week the Journal announced it was combining its twice-a-week Business Outlook tabloids into a single Monday edition.

The cutbacks also affect the Rio Rancho and West Side Journal editions, which starting next week will only be delivered on Thursdays and Saturdays.

It's an unexpected change for West Side resident Robert Naranjo who's subscribed to the Journal for 40 years.

"Well, I'd hope they'd let me know about it," he said,

Cities lose home delivery

But for the Journal, which the publishing company boasts as the "oldest, largest and only state-wide newspaper," residents who live in extreme northern New Mexico, along the east side of the state and in the far southwest won't find a Journal on their doorsteps or in racks or stores. However they will be able to subscribe by mail for $22 a month or to the online editions for $12.75 a month.

The Journal also blamed drops in advertising revenue and higher shipping costs for the circulation cutbacks.

But that ultimate cost falls on the jobs, of what the Journal statement described as "good journalists who have made valuable contributions to the Journal."

Among the communities where the Journal is ending home deliveries are Santa Rosa, Clovis, Portales, Artesia, Alamogordo, Deming, Silver City, Carlsbad and Hobbs.

Circulation will continue in the Albuquerque metro area, Santa Fe, Las Vegas, Taos, Española, western New Mexico including Grants and Gallup, the Four Corners, Roswell and the Interstate 25 corridor between Albuquerque and Las Cruces.