Tipster says USAT shifting regional accounting

Cutting more expenses after record circulation losses, USA Today is consolidating some jobs at six regional business offices, a reader tells me -- a move that shifts accounting work to a single, existing office in Charlotte, N.C. (Updated at 8:04 p.m. ET; an earlier version said incorrectly that the offices are closing.)

The offices are in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Seattle, the reader says. They manage sales, marketing, finance and distribution for the paper's nationwide circulation system. Only the accounting jobs are moving, my source says. The plan was first announced in January, and apparently will be finalized at the end of June. The centers were established two years ago during an earlier round of consolidations.

For a glimpse of their overall operations, one of the centers has employed about 14 people, including accountants, controllers, analysts and information technology workers, according to my source. In turn, the center works with about 60 regional circulation directors and managers, district sales managers, marketing directors and other staff in nearly a dozen states, the source says.

370K in lost circulation
The consolidation mirrors similar moves across Gannett's newspapers and TV stations in finance, printing, editorial, advertising production, customer service and broadcasting master control, as the company looks for new ways to reduce costs amid declining revenue.

USA Today's move comes as the paper struggles to regain about 370,000 readers lost last year during the recession-driven business travel downturn, plus the advertising dollars that disappeared with those readers. To counter those losses, Publisher Dave Hunke (left) two months ago ordered another round of unpaid furloughs, plus an extended wage freeze.

With USAT's 17% circulation decline, The Wall Street Journal became the nation's top-selling newspaper -- a rank Gannett's marquee title had held for years. Clawing back some of those lost readers, the paper recently struck a deal with Starbucks to sell papers in that coffee chain's 6,500 U.S. locations.

Newspaper war heats up
The paper is pushing back on other fronts, amid a growing battle with the WSJ and the third national daily, The New York Times. To win over advertisers, USAT launched a branding campaign last month in major advertising trade publications.

The heightened three-way turf war started two years ago, when then-new WSJ owner Rupert Murdoch (left) for the first time began sending signals that he was going after USAT's franchise.

USA Today's branding campaign came in advance of a new Gannett earnings report that raised questions about USAT advertising revenue losses. GCI said in its first-quarter report last week that ad sales gains in automotive and other categories had been swamped by continued weakness in travel and financial -- despite a 3% increase in paid advertising pages, to 544 from 527 in the year-ago quarter. That suggests that USAT was discounting its ad rates, perhaps because of the six-figure loss in circulation.

[Image: today's paper, Newseum]