The company cut 20 jobs last year, just the latest in a series of cuts under different owners. During its heyday under Knight Ridder in the 1980s, the Inquirer had about 600 union-covered newsroom employees and the Daily News about 200.

The numbers will soon be about 200 for the Inquirer, fewer than 100 at the Daily News and about 50 for Philly.com, according to the guild.

The layoffs announced Thursday include five full- or part-time Inquirer reporters, two full- or part-time Daily News reporters, seven part-time copy editors and two part-time Philly.com content producers.

According to Guild grievances, newsroom managers censored recent stories on a rival bid contemplated by developer Bart Blatstein, who now owns the headquarters building.

As for the tablet sales, Osberg had hoped the first batch of 5,000 might sell out by Thanksgiving. They debuted in September, at $99 with a two-year digital subscription. Six months later, 1,000 remain unsold, Block said.

Still, he said the branded tablets have helped push sales of the company’s Android app.

“When you think about how we rolled it out, we timed it perfectly with the launch of a digital app,’’ Block said.