Houston
Owner: Village Voice Media
Effective: Oct. 20, 2011

At least one reporter and one editor were laid off. Do you know more? Leave a comment or send me an email: newspaperlayoffs@gmail.com. Emailed tips are anonymous.
Source: Gawker

Update: The arts and culture editor, two web columnists and a writer were laid off. (11.03.11)
Source: Paper Cuts tip

Kankakee, Ill.
Owner: Small Newspaper Group
Effective: Oct. 22, 2011

Eleven employees accepted buyout offers. “The local economy is not yet recovering, and while we know it will someday improve, we had to adjust the size of our operations to math the current economic conditions,” said general manager Ken Munjoy in a story on the paper’s website. Munjoy said the buyout offer “created an opportunity for people who were thinking of changing careers, going back to school or retiring, to fulfill those dreams.”
Source: The Daily Journal

Chicago
Owner: Real Times Inc.
Effective: Oct. 23, 2011

At least three employees were laid off, including the paper’s executive editor and news editor. A full-time photographer also was cut to part-time.
Sources: Chicago Sun-Times via Romenesko+

Palm Beach, Fla.
Owner: Cox Enterprises
Announced: Oct. 14, 2011

Twenty employees were laid off. “Unfortunately, the latest economic downturn forced us to adjust our recently completed 2012 budget projections and say goodbye to our colleagues and friends,” Publisher Tim Burke wrote in a memo to employees. “Though we are beginning to rebound from some tough summer months, we are still projecting year-over-year declines in revenues next year that necessitate this difficult decision.” These cuts are in addition to layoffs related to consolidation efforts across Cox newspapers.
Source: Poynter

New York
Owner: New York Times Co.
Effective: Dec. 31, 2011

Buyouts are being offered to newsroom employees; Executive Editor Jill Abramson said there will be “fewer than 20″ buyouts by the end of the year. Open positions also will be eliminated, but Abramson said layoffs will not follow the buyout offer: “No matter how many people do or do not raise their hands, no one in the newsroom — either Guild or excluded — will be laid off as a result of this program.” A Times executive also said buyouts are being offered on the business side. The Times also recently reorganized about.com, cutting 15 full- and part-time positions and creating 10 full-time positions.
Sources: The New York Times; AFP; Poynter

Denver
Owner: Village Voice Media
Effective: Sept. 28, 2011

Two full-time positions were eliminated.
Source: Westword

Denver
Owner: MediaNews Group
Announced: Oct. 5, 2011

Buyouts are being offered; company officials said they hope to “up to 20″ positions. Employees were told layoffs could follow if there are not enough buyout takers. The Post did not publicize the buyout offer’s deadline.
Sources: Denver Post; Westword

Update: Nineteen employees accepted the buyout offer in November. (01.30.12)
Source: Westword via Paper Cuts tips

Augusta and Waterville, Maine
Owner: MaineToday Media Inc.
Effective: Oct. 14, 2011

Three employees accepted a buyout offer. MaineToday CEO Richard L. Connor blamed the economy: “Our business is inextricably tied to the national economy so, like other companies, we’ve had to confront declining revenue with a downsizing of the workforce,” he said in a prepared statement.
Source: Kennebec Journal

Minneapolis
Owner: Village Voice Media
Effective: Sept. 27, 2011

Citing “economic challenges,” a food writer was laid off and an open reporting position was eliminated.
Sources: MinnPost via New York Observer via Paper Cuts tip

Dallas
Owner: Village Voice Media
Effective: Sept. 26, 2011

The paper’s only full-time sports reporter was laid off. “I didn’t exactly see this coming,” Richie Whitt wrote in his last column. “Impossible to envision going from emcee of Brew at the Zoo one week, to writing the paper’s cover story the next week, to … poof. But it’s another sign of the terrible, terminal disease rotting newspapers to death. One minute your blog is a prototype; the next, the fat that must be trimmed.”
Sources: The Dallas Observer via New York Observer via Paper Cuts tip

Update: A staff writer and the assistant arts and culture editor were laid off. (11.03.11)
Source: Paper Cuts tip