The companywide cuts that began in Gannett Co. newspapers across the mainland Tuesday rolled through the Honolulu Advertiser yesterday.

Some 41 employees accepted the voluntary layoff, or buyout, offered in October, and in order to meet cost-cutting goals, another 10 employees, six full time and four part time, were laid off.

In an e-mail to staff, President and Publisher Lee Webber said, “;As 2008 draws to a close and we head into 2009 with our eye focused firmly on the future, we continue to face many challenges as we navigate through these increasingly difficult economic times.”;

By yesterday afternoon the union representing hundreds of employees had not received official notification of who would be laid off.

Upon hearing the tally in the afternoon, Newspaper Guild Administrative Officer Wayne Cahill said it would be good to know what the company is going to do to increase revenue.

Among union members, five or six people on the editorial staff volunteered for the layoff, and the company accepted four voluntary layoffs from the advertising department, Cahill said.

“;Fifteen or 16 volunteered but they only accepted four,”; he said. “;One of the problems is our members keep asking how many (people will be laid off) and from what departments, and our frustration is that we can't tell them, the company won't share its plans.”;

The company has laid off 81 people from its daily and community newspaper divisions in the last four months and just before Thanksgiving proposed a 31.5 percent across-the-board pay cut. It is in negotiations toward a new union contract to succeed the pact that expired in June 2007.