2 Southland newspapers to reduce, combine staffs

The Press-Telegram and Daily Breeze, two newspapers owned by MediaNews Group Inc., will cut staff and merge their Internet, copy editing and pagination operations in response to sagging ad revenue, an editor said Monday.

The move involves the loss of nine jobs at the Daily Breeze, located in Torrance, and about 10 jobs at the Press-Telegram in Long Beach, Daily Breeze Editor Phillip Sanfield said. In addition, Mark Ficarra, who was named publisher of the Daily Breeze in January, will also become publisher of the Press-Telegram.

The positions of current Press-Telegram Publisher Dave Kuta and Managing Editor John Futch were eliminated. They will leave the company.

“We are in an incredibly difficult market right now,” Sanfield said. “These are really good people on both sides, at the Breeze and the P-T, but we are just going to have to make this work in a positive way.”

Under a reorganization to be in place Thursday, the two papers are forming a 24-person copy editing and pagination unit at the Daily Breeze that will handle both papers. A five-person team will handle the websites of both papers.

The newspapers will still be printed separately. The Daily Breeze has a circulation of 65,000. The Press-Telegram’s circulation is about 88,000.

Photographers, editors and reporters for the papers will remain in their respective offices, Sanfield said. The two newspapers employ a total of 111 editorial workers, he added.

Denver-based MediaNews is a privately owned chain that operates 57 daily newspapers, including the Los Angeles Daily News and several other Southern California and Bay Area papers.