The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported in today’s edition that it will be cutting its newsroom staff by eight positions, or 21 percent. Editor Tom Honig told his staff in a meeting Thursday that eight of the paper’s 38 full-time newsroom employees — reporters, photographers, editors, copy editors and support staff — will be let go on July 1. After the layoffs, the Sentinel will be devoting more of its resources to the Internet and conducting meetings with the public to find out what kind of coverage readers want in the paper, the story in today’s edition said.

“We’re going to continue to make the paper smarter and provide people with the information they need in a new era,” Honig said. “Times change and old models have to change with it. I wish we could go off into the future with as many, if not more, reporters and photographers”

In April, 33 workers in the paper’s pressroom and mailroom were laid off and the paper is now printed in San Jose by MediaNews Group’s Mercury News. The paper’s Church Street building is for sale. MediaNews Group owns a majority interest in California Newspapers Partnership, which purchased the 25,000-circulation Sentinel in February for $45 million.