Gannett Co. Inc., the largest newspaper publisher in the United States, will end up eliminating 2,000 jobs across the company's 85 daily newspapers, the company's vice president of corporate communications told Editor & Publisher Thursday.

The company-wide layoffs, which reach about 10 percent of jobs in Gannett's Community Publishing Division, are "the end result" of "economic declines," Tara Connell told E&P. The cuts do not include USA Today and the Detroit Free Press, which are managed outside the community division.

So far, Gannett has axed at least 1,021 employees from its payroll since Tuesday in the largest mass layoffs the newspaper industry has ever seen, Followthemedia.com reported. The Gannett Blog reported that USA Today will cut 20 newsroom jobs.

The company announced the layoffs in October in a letter from Robert Dickey, president of the community publishing division, to publishers. In the letter, Dickey told publishers that "decisions will be made locally because each of our markets is unique, with differing market conditions and individual needs in light of our previous reductions."

Connell told E&P that the company's corporate management left it to individual newspapers to decide how many cuts to make, and in which departments. Dickey said in his letter that publishers were asked to decide which jobs to cut by mid-November in order "to achieve the 10 percent division-wide cut."

Gannett-owned Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi's largest newspaper, announced Wednesday it would cut staff by 9 percent due to declining revenue. Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Star has cut 52 jobs, while the St. Cloud Times of Minnesota, has cut 23, E&P reported.

Meanwhile, the Courier-Journal laid off 51 employees Wednesday, including 17 who volunteered for the severance package. The Des Moines Register has cut 41 jobs and left an additional 15 open positions unfilled, KCCI.com reported.

Also at The Register, long-time cartoonist Brian Duffy was laid off. Former publisher Charles Edward told KCCI that letting a top name go "does erode the credibility of the product if those people are no longer associated (with the paper)."

Divisions outside community publishing will likely see cuts too, Connell said, according to E&P.

"There have been and will continue to be layoffs throughout the company," she said. "Hopefully, we will not have to do anymore (daily newspaper) layoffs, but it has to be kept in line with revenue."

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