Community newspaper president announces staff cuts

ROCKLAND – Courier Publications, publisher of seven community newspapers, has cut four positions, company president and CEO David Morse said Friday.

The cuts were announced Thursday at some of the newspapers. Courier Publications was purchased two months ago by Crescent Publishing, a company based in South Carolina.

Two positions were eliminated at the Courier-Gazette, the thrice-weekly Rockland newspaper. Morse said a computer page design person and a typist were laid off.

The design position was added when Courier Publications purchased two York County newspapers, he said, but the job remained after those papers were sold earlier this year. Instead of having someone type printed announcements and other items into a computer, Morse said, the company will use an optical scanner operated by a part-time employee to input text.

In addition to the cuts, the company’s controller and credit manager has resigned. Morse said the new owners have brought in a chief financial officer, and the controller was given the option of staying on and working under the CFO but declined to do so.

A full-time staffer at the Camden Herald, working as a reporter, copy editor and typist also was cut. And with the resignation of the editor of the Bar Harbor Times, the current editor of the company’s Ellsworth Weekly newspaper will oversee both papers, Morse said.

“At the other papers, we’re just looking into doing things differently,” including consolidating some positions, he said

Courier Publications employs 175.

“None of it is fundamental and will require big changes,” Morse said of the cuts. To offset the cuts, he said, budgets for free-lance contributors at the papers will be increased.

Increases in the cost of health insurance and other operational elements have forced the cuts, Morse said.

In addition to the Courier-Gazette, Camden Herald, Ellsworth Weekly and Bar Harbor Times, Courier Publications publishes the Republican Journal in Belfast, the Capital Weekly in Augusta and the Lincoln County Weekly in Damariscotta.