This morning, Mercury News newsroom staffers were to be told via phone whether they were going to be laid off. The San Jose paper is cutting 40 members of its newsroom. As the Guild points out in this posting, “This would be a blow at any time but it comes on the heels of nearly two years of deecost-cutting. Since 2000, the newsroom at the Mercury News has been cut in half from about 400 journalists to 200 full-time positions. This bloodletting has to stop.” The Merc used this same procedure of calling employees at home to let them know they are fired during the last round of layoffs in January.