On Friday, the San Jose Mercury News downsized its newsroom staff yet again through a combination of layoffs and buyouts. The newsroom is now about one third as large as it was back in 2000, at the height of the dot-com boom, and the height of the paper's success. One former editor explains why he can't bear to read the paper any more. The other Bay Area papers also owned by the MediaNews Group — including the Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, Alameda Times-Star, Daily Review in Hayward, Argus in Fremont and virtually every other paper in the East Bay — also trimmed their staffs yesterday.

Here is a list of people who left the Merc:

Layoffs

Lisa Chung, Metro feature writer, ex-columnist

Steve Chae, Library

Katherine Conrad, commercial real estate reporter

Barbara Egbert, copy editor

Barb Feder, medical writer

Dennis Georgatos, 49ers beat writer

Elizabeth Goodspeed, features designer

Joanne HoYoung Lee, photographer

Carolyn Jung, food columnist

Dave Kiefer, sports writer

Thu Ly, photographer

Mike Martinez, travel writer

Erik Olvera, Metro reporter

Connie Skipitares, metro reporter

Barry Witt, Metro reporter



Buyouts

Alvie Lindsay, state bureau chief

Matt Mansfield, deputy managing editor

Pam Moreland , features editor

Rebecca Salner, AME of Business

Steve Wright, head of editorial pages



Voluntary departures

Sue Hutchison, features columnist

Julie Kaufmann, food editor

Levi Sumagaysay, assistant Business editor