The News-Press laid off 14 employees Tuesday, including three from the newsroom, after its parent company, Gannett, announced 700 layoffs nationwide.

The remaining 11 layoffs were marketing, sales and administrative support positions, Executive Editor Terry Eberle said. The Fort Myers-based media company has 400 employees, 102 of which are in the newsroom.

Eberle said they had been preparing for the layoffs but that final decisions were not made until Tuesday. He was grateful that this round of layoffs affected fewer than those in the past.

“We lost some very good people but it could have been far worse,” he said. “These are tough times for everybody.”

Eberle said the newspaper will continue to be aggressive in its reporting and approach to watchdog, investigative journalism.

In a letter to employees at all of Gannett’s 82 U.S. newspapers, President of U.S. Community Publishing Robert Dickey explained that while Gannett has seen improved circulation and audience growth, weaknesses in areas such as real estate, slow job creation, and lessening auto ad demand have challenged revenues.

“National advertising remained soft and with many of our local advertisers reducing their overall budgets, we need to take further steps to align our costs with the current revenue trends,” Dickey said.

The layoffs are the biggest in the company’s history since 2009, when about 1,400 jobs were eliminated.