The cuts will come from the company's Community Publishing division, which groups more than 80 local dailies, the newspaper citing a person familiar with the company's thinking as saying.
The Wall Street Journal added that it was unclear precisely how many jobs will be lost, but cited the source as saying it will be under 2,000.
Shares in Gannett, which posted a 60 per cent drop in quarterly earings when it reported first-quarter results in April, held steady in after-hours trade.
The US newspaper industry is struggling as the recession prompts advertisers to slash budgets and readers go online for their news.
At USA TODAY, advertising sales plummeted 33.5 per cent in the first quarter.