About 30 percent of editorial jobs have been cut at a 145-year-old daily newspaper in St. John’s, New York, following a takeover by Postmedia.

Keith Gosse, president of the union representing workers at The Telegram, said staff were told on Wednesday that four of the newspaper’s 13 editorial positions would be eliminated.

Saturday will see the last daily printed edition of the newspaper, as a weekly printed version will be published from next week, with daily news online.

Gosse says there were more than 40 people working in the newsroom when he started at The Telegram in 1986.

Postmedia’s acquisition of The Telegram is part of its acquisition of insolvent SaltWire Network Inc. and Halifax Herald Ltd., which together formed Atlantic Canada’s largest newspaper chain.

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The Toronto-based media company, which owns the National Post and many other properties, decided not to buy The Telegram’s printing facility in St. John’s, leaving its future uncertain.

“Without copper to run the plant, the plant is going to close,” Gosse said in an interview. “So that’s another 17 people out of work, and that’s not including office workers, sales people, customer service people.”

Postmedia’s acquisition of SaltWire and the Halifax Herald is expected to close on Saturday.

“I wish people knew the impact of losing local journalists from small towns all over the world,” Gosse said. “Local journalism keeps people informed about their neighbors and what’s going on in their communities. It keeps people together.”

Gosse said three of the newsroom employees whose jobs were cut are now in a “transition phase,” meaning they could come back as permanent employees. However, they would replace someone with less seniority and remove them from their job.

Among the positions eliminated in the newsroom are the newspaper’s photojournalists, including Gosse’s role.

The Telegram’s political reporter, Juanita Mercer, won a National Newspaper Award last year for her reporting that prompted the Newfoundland and Labrador government to introduce equal pay legislation. The paper regularly wins Atlantic Journalism Awards for its in-depth coverage of important issues, including the vastly overbudget Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project and the squalid conditions at the province’s largest jail.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published August 23, 2024.

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