If you’ve been taking a lot of names off of your media lists over the past year, there’s a good reason for that. More than 3,775 newspaper jobs were cut in 2011 according to the Paper Cuts blog, a figure that’s 30 percent higher than 2010. About 40,000 newspaper jobs have been lost since the blog started keeping tabs in 2007.

The impact on PR is undeniable. Publicists lose contacts (and people they enjoy working with), media outlets have to change or condense what they cover, and it’s harder to pitch/place a story. We talked with GalleyCat’s Jason Boog about the topic on yesterday’s Morning Media Menu.

The constant changes in the newspaper industry are no better evidenced than with the announcements coming from The New York Times this week — talks to sell 16 of its regional newspapers, which the paper says is part of a plan to focus on core papers like the NYT, and news that a number of veteran journos would be leaving the paper.

[image via Newsosaur]