The Des Moines Register's historic downtown office building (Jason Hancock/Iowa Independent).

The figures represent a 13 percent daily reduction and a 6.7 percent Sunday reduction. That would put The Register’s daily circulation at a little more than 118,000 newspapers, down from 147,699 in September 2006. The paper’s Sunday circulation would total a little more than 206,000 newspapers, down from 237,870 in September 2006.

In a memo to staff explaining the numbers, Register President and Publisher Laura Hollingsworth points out that 56 percent of the daily loss and 36 percent of the Sunday reduction came due to “strategic changes we’ve made in our business as we’ve moved focus to circulation that is most important to our customers and to us.”

For example, Hollingsworth said the paper, owned by Gannett, eliminated many free upgrades that provided Sunday subscribers additional days at no charge. The paper also eliminated the biggest discount subscriptions and reduced delivery to areas where it was not as profitable. Lastly, a price increase also resulted in some circulation reduction, Hollingsworth said.

Without these moves, the paper’s circulation would have only declined 5.5 percent daily and 4.3 percent on Sunday.

“[These decisions] were painful to make,” she said. “But, these decisions bolstered the economics of our circulation operation while providing the most attractive distribution model for our advertisers. “

Despite the circulation numbers, Hollingsworth boasted that The Register’s overall readership is actually higher in 2009 than it was in 2001.

“In 2001, The Des Moines Register reached more than 516,000 people in central Iowa,” she said. “Today, The Des Moines Register, along with DesMoinesRegister.com and our many publications such as Juice, Moms Like Me and Homestyle, reach more than 597,000 adults. This is a growth in audience of more than 15 percent.”

According to the trade publication Editor and Publisher, The Register’s circulation drop is consistent with other papers across the country. Gannett’s flagship paper, USA Today, saw its circulation drop 17 percent. The New York Times reported a 7.28 percent decrease. The Los Angeles Times reported its daily circulation is down 11 percent.

The biggest drops came from the San Francisco Chronicle (-25.82), Newark (N.J.) Star Ledger (-22.22) and Dallas Morning News (-22.16).

Overall newspaper circulation is down 10.6 percent daily and 7.4 percent on Sunday.

Since August 2008, The Register instituted more than 100 layoffs and a mandatory furlough program in response to a declining economy.

Reporter Lisa Colonno, sports copy editor Brian Granger and sports reporter Dan McCool were laid off Thursday, joining director of photography Don Tormey, news editor Suzanne Behnke, designer Scott Lester, features writer Dawn Sagario, writer Mary Challender and writer Kathy Hickman.

Two sources have also confirmed that the paper’s Iowa City bureau has been closed and reporter Erin Jordan and photographer Harry Baumert have also been let go. The Register’s parent company, Gannett Co. Inc., also owns the Iowa-City Press Citizen.

Several other employees received demotions, including editors Larry Ballard and Kathy Bolton, and investigative reporter Lee Rood. (UPDATE: While originally reported that Register investigative reporter Lee Rood was demoted, Rood tells the Iowa Independent that she was not demoted and she did not receive a pay cut. Her job did not change).

Sources inside the Register tell the Iowa Independent the newsroom layoffs include director of photography Don Tormey, news editor Suzanne Behnke, designer Scott Lester, features writer Dawn Sagario, writer Mary Challender and writer Kathy Hickman. Several other newsroom employees were let go but their names could not be confirmed. There were also layoffs in advertising, production, circulation, marketing, information technology and finance.

The cuts, which were the first of 2009 after 100 newspaper jobs in Iowa were cut in 2008, came at the direction of The Register’s parent company, Gannet Co. Inc. Nationwide, Gannett plans to eliminate 1,400 jobs.

Below is the memo Register Publisher Laura Hollingsworth sent to employees this afternoon:

All,

This has been a difficult week for all of us at The Des Moines Register.

As you know last week Gannett announced layoffs due to the continuing economic downturn. Locally, a total of 36 Des Moines Register employees and six employees at our Central Iowa and Marengo weekly operations are impacted. Departments affected include advertising, production, circulation, marketing, information technology, finance and the news staff.

I understand the financial and emotional impact of this action and I know that all of our thoughts are with these employees and their families.

I know I can count on you to continue to support each other.  Please see your department manager if you have specific questions or concerns.   Again, I invite anyone who wishes to talk with me directly to contact me at any time.

I remain optimistic.   This economy will turn and we’ll be ready to move with it when it does.

With appreciation, LH

Laura L. Hollingsworth
President and Publisher
The Des Moines Register
West Group President
Gannett U.S. Community Publishing

Laura Hollingsworth, president and publisher of The Des Moines Register, told employees in a memo last week that the cuts were coming, though the size and scope was still unknown. Robert Dickey, president of Gannett U.S. Community Publishing, said most layoffs would be finalized by Thursday as part of a companywide staff reduction of 1,400 employees. In 2008, the Register eliminated 70 positions.

Gannett’s other Iowa paper, the Iowa City Press-Citizen, announced Wednesday that it was laying off four employees. There will also be changes to the paper’s circulation staff due to a new agreement with the Cedar Rapids Gazette to print and distribute the Press-Citizen.

The Des Moines Register's historic downtown office building.

The paper reports cuts will come from the U.S. Community Publishing division, which consists of more than 80 local dailies, citing an anonymous source within the company. Jim Hopkins, who follows the company at GannettBlog, reported last month that layoffs were expected to take place July 8 and total 4,500 jobs in the company’s newspaper division. Hopkins now reports that the layoffs will include a mix of newsroom and business positions, and notices will be completed by the end of the month.

Last year, Gannett eliminated more than 4,000 newspaper positions, including more than 100 newsroom positions in Iowa. The Register alone eliminated nearly 70 positions. Since the layoffs, the company has instituted two rounds of weeklong furloughs in hopes of staving off another round of job cuts.

Sources inside The Register’s newsroom said there has been no formal announcment from management regarding layoffs.

Obradovich, 44, has been the Register’s political editor since 2003, and she was a state government reporter and statehouse bureau chief before that.

Notably, though Obradovich’s CV certainly qualifies her for the new title, this announcement should also help her employer save some cash. The Register, which has been forced to trim its budget by struggling parent company Gannett Co., has likely avoided the need to hire any additional (high-profile) staff.

Obradovich replaces longtime columnist David Yepsen, who was a fixture of Iowa’s political landscape for decades before he left earlier this year to take a job at Southern Illinois University.

In another possible sign of cutbacks, a press release notes that the new Obradovich column will be found in the paper “every week,” which sounds to me like “once per week.” When Yepsen was political columnist, his work was published several times per week.

The paper’s press release appears below:

The Des Moines Register today announces Kathie Obradovich as the new political columnist.

Generations of Iowans have trusted the Register’s political commentary to help set the agenda, define issues and hold public officials accountable. For decades, presidential candidates have courted the Register’s attention and national reporters have sought its tips and insight into candidates’ characters and qualifications. Obradovich will not only carry on this tradition but add her own unique voice. “My passion is helping Iowans to engage with their government to make a difference,” said Obradovich, political columnist for The Des Moines Register.

Obradovich has served since 2003 as the Register’s political editor, directing coverage of Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, the Iowa Statehouse and Congress. She has been the lead editor of the award-winning Iowa Poll, developing questionnaires and coordinating reporting of the results.

Obradovich has covered Iowa government and politics for over 20 years, including a decade as a reporter and bureau chief at the Iowa Statehouse. She’s an Iowa native and Iowa State University graduate, with strong family roots in the state.

“Kathie earned this role by covering politics and government in Iowa for 20 years. She has shaped the coverage of elections, Iowa Caucuses and legislative sessions, sometimes under her own byline and sometimes behind the scenes. Born and raised in Iowa and with those years of perspective, she is uniquely suited to carry on the responsibility of the four Des Moines Register political columnists who preceded her.” said Carolyn Washburn, Vice President and Editor of The Des Moines Register.

Obradovich’s first column will appear on Sunday, June 28. You can find her columns every week in The Des Moines Register[...]

Jim Hopkins, who follows the company at GannettBlog, is reporting that two sources have confirmed the company’s principal executive and chief financial officer has ordered across-the-board layoffs. The layoffs are expected to take place July 8 and total 4,500 jobs in the company’s newspaper division.

Sources inside The Register’s newsroom confirmed the rumors have made there way to employees at the paper, but said management has not made any formal announcements regarding job cuts.

The headquarters of The Des Moines Register in downtown Des Moines.

Last August, Gannett eliminated 1,000 jobs, including 600 layoffs, at its 85 local papers across the country. At that time, The Register eliminated 12 full-time and three part-time positions, and announced 11 vacant positions would go unfilled.

Another round of layoffs followed in December, this time totaling nearly 3,000 employees company wide. In Iowa, The Register eliminated 56 jobs and Gannett’s other Iowa papers — the Iowa City Press-Citizen, the Indianola Record-Herald and the Altoona Herald – eliminated 25 jobs.

All told, Gannett eliminated more than 100 newsroom positions in Iowa during 2008.

Since the layoffs, the company has instituted two rounds of weeklong furloughs in hopes of staving off another round of job cuts. However, in an interview with the Iowa Independent in December, Register Publisher Laura Hollingsworth said she could not guarantee that the layoffs were over in 2009.

Hollingsworth and Susan Patterson Plank, the paper’s vice president of marketing and digital development, could not be reached for comment.

The world has become saturated with new media, but it is the oldest of the old media, newspapers, that remain virtually the only enterprises that actually go out and dig up news. The other media tend to be mere conduits that pass on news, or echo chambers of commentary about news that was originally reported in newspapers.

But beneath Doak’s rather simplistic taxonomy of news organizations lies a deeper, surprisingly harsh critique of corporate media executives, laid out right in the pages of a newspaper owned by Gannett Co. Inc.

I have no solution, but I do have an observation. Newspaper corporations have been paying their CEOs millions of dollars a year. These corporate chieftains have only one job, really – to develop the new business model and guide their operating units through the transition to a new era of success.

The CEOs simply haven’t earned their pay. Amid bankruptcies, closings and shrinking news staffs, the industry is no closer to a successful new model than it was five years ago.

If the big newspaper corporations can’t reinvent their product, perhaps it’s time to break them up. Let each community newspaper seek its own path, rather than following cookie-cutter dictates from their corporate owners.

Gannett CEO Craig Dubow received a bonus of $875,000 in 2008, according to Gannett Blog, and his total compensation was valued at $3.1 million by the Associated Press.

During 2008, Gannett’s stock price plummeted by nearly 80 percent, and the company was forced to adopt significant cost-cutting measures, including layoffs, in its newsrooms “information centers” across the country.

Sources inside the Register’s newsroom confirmed that they were notified Monday morning, although most said they saw the news coming months ago when the first round of furloughs was announced.

“This is not news to us,” one employee said.

In a memo to staff, Gannett CEO Craig Dubow said the company would begin the second quarter “without any real relief in sight from this unprecedented economic downturn and its challenge to our company.”

The company had to decide between more layoffs (more than 2,000 employees were let go in 2008) and more furloughs (every employee was mandated to take a one week unpaid furlough during the first quarter of 2009).

“We chose, for most employees, a furlough program consisting of at least one week of unpaid leave to be taken in April, May or June,” Dubow said.

For Gannett newspapers like The Register, salaried employees must take one full week at one time while hourly employee must take five days over the course of the three-month quarter. Employees who earn over $90,000 will take a second week of unpaid leave.

UPDATE: The Des Moines Register becomes one of the first Gannett papers to report on the latest round of company-wide furloughs and adds one new detail: the 1,000 full- and part-time employees at The Des Moines Register, the Iowa City Press-Citizen and the Register’s weekly papers will have their wages frozen for at least one year.

The paper’s site had nearly 213 million page views from March 2008 to February, the document said, almost 2 percent of the entire chain’s total. Overall, company wide page views fell 6.6 percent from January 2008.

The Register ranks behind the company’s flagship paper, USA Today, as well as newspapers and broadcast stations in much bigger markets: Phoenix, Detroit, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Denver. It did, however, beat out several larger papers, including Honolulu; Ashbury Park, N.J.; Rochester, N.Y.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Louisville, Ky.

In 2007, The Register was one of three test sites, along with the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D., and Florida Today in Melbourne, Fla., for Gannett’s new “Information Center” philosophy, with the goal of transforming all 86 of the chain’s daily newspapers into 24-hour local multimedia content providers.