The San Jose Mercury News today eliminated 50 jobs at the paper, through a combination of layoffs and buyouts.
34 employees – 15 from the newsroom and 19 from other parts of the paper were laid off. Earlier in the week, 16 employees took buyouts, including 5 news managers: Editorial Page Editor Steve Wright, AME Pam Moreland, Business editor Rebecca Salner, Matt Mansfield and Alvie Lindsay.
According to a Merc insider, the most recent round of layoffs leaves the paper with 170 FTEs down from 400 at its peak, with a 39% reduction taking place since the end of 2006.
The Mercury News reports other Bay Area newspapers owned by MediaNews and operated by the Bay Area News Group also went through cuts. The Oakland Tribune and the Contra Costa Times on Thursday reduced 10% of their staff through 107 buyouts. There were no layoffs at the other newspapers.