In an effort to further cut costs in its regional UK newspaper division, Newsquest North-East will cut 17 editorial jobs, close five district offices and freeze workers' pay by January 1, Media Guardian reported Friday.

Staff will be made redundant at three of the Gannett-owned Newsquest titles: the Northern Echo, Darlington & Stockton Times series and free Advertiser series. Employees were notified of the cuts at about noon Friday.

The “rapidly deteriorating economic outlook and the severe impact on advertising revenues across all our titles,” is causing the company to take these steps, Peter Barron, Northern Echo editor, and Malcolm Warne, editor of the Darlington & Stockton Times, stated in a joint e-mail, according to Media Guardian.

Staff at district offices that will be closed may be moved to offices in Stockton, Redcar, Barbard Castle, Richmond and Thirsk, Media Guardian reported.

Circulation at the Northern Echo has fallen 1.5 percent year-on-year in the first six months of 2008, to 50,427, Press Gazette reported.

“It is all about the short term and nothing about the long-term future of the paper,” Darlington National Union of Journalists father of chapel Adam Murray said, according to Press Gazette. “Closing the district offices is tantamount to waving good-bye to the communities that have been served by the paper for a century.”

The publisher hopes to see savings of about £370,000, according to Media Guardian.