By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — For the second time this year, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette has announced layoffs, citing the struggling economy.

Deputy Editor Frank Fellone said Monday that 16 people were laid off from their jobs in the Little Rock and Northwest Arkansas newsrooms.

In February, the paper laid off as many as 60 people, including seven in the newsrooms.

“It’s the same basic problem,” Fellone said Monday. “Newspapers are sensitive to the general economy and the general economy is kind of ugly.”

Mandated furloughs announced March — employees were told to take one day of unpaid leave every four weeks — are still in effect, Fellone said.

“It’s heartbreaking, of course, for those of us who are still here and our hearts go out to those who have had to leave,” he said.

The layoffs were announced Monday morning after a 10:30 a.m. staff meeting.

“Not a single person on the list is being let go because they are bad or are being punished,” Executive Editor Griffin Smith said in a news release.

Employees laid off will be paid until May 18 and have the choice of working or leaving in the interim, the newspaper said.

It said advertising revenue for the print and online editions were down 22.1 percent in the first quarter of this year and 13.2 percent in 2008.

The Democrat-Gazette is owned by Wehco Media Inc. of Little Rock, which owns 12 daily newspapers and 12 weekly newspapers in Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee and Missouri, including the Chattanooga Times Free Press, which laid off employees last week.

The newspaper is not the only Arkansas media outlet to have announced layoffs this year. In January, KATV-TV, Channel 7, cut about 20 staff members, and the Stephens Media-owned Morning News of Northwest Arkansas announced staff cuts last month. Clear Channel Communications, which owns radio stations in Central and Northwest Arkansas laid off 9 employees in Little Rock last week.