Knight Ridder Cuts Jobs

Knight Ridder is the second-largest newspaper publishing company in the country, but it's cutting 1,700 jobs to compensate for disappointing advertising sales and increased newsprint cost, according to Chairman and CEO Tony Ridder.

In April, Ridder promised that the company would eliminate positions at 32 daily newspapers due to slowed economic growth within the last year. Originally, Knight Ridder cut 400 jobs. Added to the next downsizing, the company has eliminated nearly 10 percent of its entire workforce in total.

Steve Rossi, president of Knight Ridder's newspaper division, says help-wanted advertising fell 25.7 percent in the first five months and classified ads dropped 11.6 percent. In contrast, real estate ads rose 22.6 percent and retail ads were up 1.6 percent.

Knight Ridder publishes papers in 28 markets, including the San Jose

Mercury News, The Miami Herald, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.