Ticker: Gannett lays off newspaper staff

The Virginia-based newspaper publisher Gannett Co. confirmed Friday that it’s laying off some of its newsroom staff.

The publisher, which owns USA Today and more than 200 other daily U.S. newspapers with print editions, ended last year with more than 16,000 employees worldwide, including more than 4,200 reporters, editors and photographers.

The layoffs are the latest sign of the unrelentingly tough times in the newspaper industry, which has been steadily shrinking for more than a decade as more advertising shifts from print to digital and readers turn to other online outlets for information and entertainment.

In its most recent quarter, Gannett’s revenue dropped 7% from the same time last year to nearly $749 million.

Rail driver walkout in U.K.

Thousands of U.K. train drivers walked off the job Saturday in a strike over jobs, pay and conditions, scuppering services across much of the country. The action was the latest in a spreading series of strikes by British workers seeking substantial raises to offset soaring prices for food and fuel.

The 24-hour strike by members of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen halted trains on major routes, including the main lines between London and Scotland and commuter services around the capital.

This has been a summer of travel disruption in Britain. Thousands of railway cleaners, signalers, maintenance workers staged a series of one-day strikes in June and July. More strikes are scheduled next week on nationwide trains and on London’s bus and subway network.

Diesel pipeline breaks

A diesel pipeline in Wyoming owned by Bridger Pipeline, a subsidiary of Casper-based True companies, cracked open and released more than 45,000 gallons of fuel, state regulators and a company representative disclosed Friday.

Cleanup work is ongoing from the spill that was discovered by the pipeline’s operator on July 27, said Joe Hunter, Emergency Response Coordinator with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. The fuel spilled into sandy soil on private ranchland near the small community of Sussex in eastern Wyoming and did not spread very far, he said.

Compiled from Associated Press reports.