• by Ray Schultz , May 21, 2021

Last year was a bad one for newspaper staffs. 

A full 31% of papers with Sunday circulations of 50,000 or more experienced layoffs, and 11% had multiple rounds, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis. 

In contrast, 27% of papers saw layoffs in 2019, up from 18% in 2019. And many of them took hits. 

The largest papers — those with Sunday circ of 250,000 or more — were the hardest hit, with 55% suffering staff cuts. The year before, the pain was roughly similar across groups. 

But digital-native news outlets saw only a slight uptick in layoffs in 2020, versus 2019. 

And papers with less than 50,000 circulation saw roughly the same proportion of layoffs as the year before: 31% vs. 29%. 

Pew used digital news articles to compile information on layoffs. The study also addresses other cost-cutting measures.