Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Columbian newspaper is cutting jobs and pages.  The paper serves southwest Washington, and as Andrew Theen reports, one of its first changes was visible Wednesday.

The Columbian had two pages of editorial content.  According to publisher Scott Campbell, that's unusual for a paper with a daily circulation under 50,000.

So Campbell said trimming to one page makes sense.  So does offering early retirement to some employees and laying others off.

Campbell says all told 20 jobs are going away, including some in the newsroom.

He says it's because business is "significantly off" this year.  By business he means advertising.  Ads provide 80 percent of the paper's revenue.

Scott Campbell: "They're not advertising as much because they feel like they can't afford to so we don't take in as many dollars as we have previously.  So we've got to adjust to the change."

Campbell says the paper will move more money and resources toward its online operations.