WOODLAND PARK -- Gannett is laying off more than 100 employees at a New Jersey media company it recently purchased.

A company executive said Wednesday the layoffs are needed to improve the financial sustainability of the North Jersey Media Group, which publishes The Record, NorthJersey.com and other newspapers.

The McLean, Virginia-based Gannett purchased the news organization in July.

Tom Donovan, northeast regional president of Gannett East Group, said layoff notices will go out to 426 of the company's employees this week. Among these, he said, more than 200 newsroom employees and about 60 in sales will remain with the company. Donovan declined to say how many people the company employs.

The layoff notices are required under state and federal law when a private company plans wide-scale layoffs.

Donovan said the changes are part of "an ambitious new reinvention" to make its newsroom and sales department more responsive to digital demands.

He said the company will invest in new equipment and "transform our strategy to better serve the sophisticated and increasingly digitally minded New Jersey audience and advertisers."

The company was previously owned by the Borg family since 1930 and is lauded in the state for its journalism, including its work fighting for access to public records.

Other than The Record, the company publishes the Herald News and a group of community newspapers.

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