La Presse newspaper lays off 158 employees

Montreal news institution La Presse announced on Thursday 158 people would be leaving the newspaper, including 43 positions within its editorial department.

Of the 158, 102 of the positions are permanent, full-time jobs.

The newspaper said in a news release that the jobs include unionized, non-unionized and contract staff.

There will be 633 staff members left at La Presseafter the laid-off staff leave.

"Despite these departures, La Presse will still have the biggest newsroom in Quebec, with 283 full-time and temporary employees, compared to the 239 we had in 2011. It will remainone of the rare North American newsrooms that saw revenue increases over the past five years," said publisher Guy Crevier in a news release on Thursday.

Last week, the newspaper announcedthat come January, there would be no more Monday-to-Friday daily print edition of the newspaper.

Only the Saturday edition of the newspaper would continue to be printed, saidCrevier.

La Presse, which is owned by Power Corp., is banking on the success of its tablet edition.

CharlesCt,spokespersonfor the journalists' union at LaPresse, told CBC the cuts came as a shock.

"It really calls into question the capacity for LaPresseto put out every day the LaPresse+ tablet edition, which has become its main platform.I think it might affect the quality of our journalism, and I think that's very dangerous," Ct said.

The newspaper launched its free tablet edition La Presse+ in 2013 at a cost $40 million.