• by Sara Guaglione , January 24, 2017

About 141 employees will lose their jobs at Gannett-owned North Jersey Media Group, the publisher of New Jersey’s second-largest daily paper The Record of Bergen County. The news comes just six months after about 130 sales and newsroom jobs at the company were eliminated.

“Today, we are initiating a series of staff reductions which, while painful, are necessary for the long-term growth of North Jersey Media Group,” the company’s president and publisher Nancy Meyer wrote in a memo Monday. “It is important for you to understand this decision is a recognition of the changing needs of a new media environment, and not a reflection of the quality of our employees or their service.”

Employees affected by the cuts will receive “appropriate severance packages” and “transitional assistance,” as well as be informed of “potential opportunities within our network family outside of this media market,” Meyer said in the memo.

She added the cuts are a response to “a rapidly evolving media industry,” and the company is “infusing” all departments with “enhanced technology to bring storytelling to a different level, as well as provide additional value to advertisers.”

North Jersey Media Group also owns The Herald News, as well as dozens of community newspapers and other affiliated digital media properties, like northjersey.com.

In a post on its site, Meyer said the cuts are part of the company’s transformation into a “digital powerhouse.”

Gannett bought North Jersey Media Group last July from the Borg family, who were owners of the company for four generations.

Poynter reports that Richard Green, editor of The Record, sent a follow-up email to staffers Monday afternoon, reassuring staffers and reminding them that the company is working to “vigorously pursue the sustainable future that our industry so desperately needs. I am confident we will get there."