Fourteen people have been laid off from the Transcontinental operation in Grand Falls-Windsor.
The layoff affects mainly layout and prepress workers for all 14 Transcontinental newspapers across the province. It also includes one salesperson and one circulation person.
This work will now move to St. Johns and Corner Brook. Five of the laid off workers will be offered positions either in St. Johns or Corner Brook.
Commercial printing was phased out at the Grand Falls-Windsor plant several years ago. With this latest round of cuts, the once bustling operation has been reduced to four editorial staff, two advertising sales staff and one office administrator.
This is a bitter pill for a town that is already struggling to cope with the loss of 750 jobs, when the paper mill closed permanently in February of 2009.
I will follow up on this in the days ahead, but the most obvious factors at play are the recession and the declining newspaper industry.
Earlier this year, Transcontinental laid off 1,750 people, or about 13 percent of its North American workforce.
Transcontinental is also publisher of The Telegram and the Western Star.
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