Daily News axes 5 more staffers

The Daily News quietly showed five more staffers the door, pushing the number hit by the devastating mass layoffs to 98 people.

A New York state WARN notice filed this week listed the newest layoffs as members of “digital services,” involved in putting together digital ads for advertisers.

The company laid off half of its newsroom July 23, hitting the photo and sports departments particularly hard. More than four dozen newsroom employees were laid off, but a subsequent WARN notice published on July 25 pegged the total number of layoffs at 93, which included departments as far-flung as phone operators and librarians in New York and cafeteria workers at the Jersey City printing plant.

No drivers or pressmen in Jersey City were laid off, but the early buzz is that the company will try to obtain concessions from its unionized workforce next.

Tronc, the Chicago-based parent company, put the brakes on a 50-cent price hike that was originally going to go into effect on Aug. 6. The buzz is that it will be instituted after Labor Day, but retailers and newsstand operators have not been told anything beyond canceling the earlier hike.