Layoffs Announced Across New Jersey

New Jersey's most-circulated newspaper and the nation's largest pharmacy benefits manager are making layoffs in the Garden State.

The Star-Ledger has announced it is laying off 34 employees, the first large-scale layoffs in the paper's history.

The Star-Ledger of Newark says 18 part- and full-time employees in the paper's newsroom of 195 workers will lose their jobs.

In a letter posted in the paper's offices today, Publisher Richard Vezza blames the cuts on continuing financial pressures and the lingering effects of Superstorm Sandy.

Vezza says the newspaper has been talking with its production unions, whose contracts expire this summer, seeking significant savings in production costs.

He says The Star-Ledger is considering the possibility of outsourcing the printing and delivery of the newspaper.

The Star Ledger move is the latest by a New Jersey newspaper to cut costs. The Asbury Park Press announced it was selling its Neptune headquaters but did not offer a reason why it except to say it was part of the newspaper's “ongoing strategic transformation.”

Yesterday the family holding company that owns The Press of Atlantic City put the daily newspaper and its affiliated operations up for sale after 60 years because the Abarta Inc feels there is no growth potential for the newspaper.

332 Layoffs In Two Locations

St. Louis-based Express Scripts Holding Co. announced it is laying off 332 employees nationwide, including 103 workers at the former Medco Health Solutions site in Franklin Lakes and 12 at its facility in Willingboro.

The layoffs are the latest in a series that followed the company's $29.1 billion acquisition of Medco in April.

Express Scripts spokesman Brian Henry told The Record in an email that the employees at Medco's former headquarters in Franklin Lakes represent a number of corporate support functions.

The Associated Press contributed to this story