Netherlands media group AD News Media a quarter of its 700 current staff, as advertising declines force the publisher to take drastic cost cutting measures, Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported Tuesday.

The 185 job cuts will mostly affect editorial staff at the publishers' namesake newspaper, AD, while a number of journalists will not have their short-term contracts renewed.

The job cuts were also an offshoot of the potential sale of AD and parent company PCM to Belgian publisher De Persgroep, according to RNW.

AD News Media is the product of the merger of Rotterdam daily Algemeen Dagblad and seven other regional newspapers in 2005.