After 26 years at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, columnist Clive McFarlane was laid off this week by parent company GateHouse Media, prompting Mayor Joseph Petty to declare, "There is no more real newspaper in the city of Worcester.”

The comment, made to the Talk of the Commonwealth radio show, was one of many concerns voiced across the country after GateHouse began making cuts at several newspapers this week.

"The editorial section isn’t even from Worcester anymore ... It’s a national editorial a lot of times. We’re losing that voice. All this stuff worries me,” Petty told radio host Hank Stolz.

In addition to the longtime Telegram columnist, GateHouse laid off two reporters at the Cape Cod Times, two photographers at the Palm Beach Post in Florida, and 14 employees at the Oklahoman in Oklahoma City this week.

Poynter reported that there were also two layoffs at the Fall River Herald News, two at the New Bedford Standard-Times and one at the Pueblo Chieftain in Colorado.

“The indignity of corporate management. After 26 years writing for this community, I was unceremoniously shown the door today by Gatehouse, deprived even of the long-established protocol of allowing a columnist to bid farewell to his readers,” McFarlane wrote in a public Facebook post Tuesday. “So I’ll say it here. It has been a long, rewarding trip, during which my life was made richer by so many of the people I’ve had the pleasure to write about.”

McFarlane’s departure is the latest in a long series of layoffs and exits at the Telegram since GateHouse bought the paper in 2014.

Last February, longtime columnist Dianne Williamson announced she was leaving the newspaper after 35, saying it was no longer a good fit.

Then, in May, six positions were cut at the newspaper by GateHouse.

Last week, reporter Mark Sullivan announced that his last day at the paper will be Sunday after taking a job at Brandeis University.

The Telegram isn’t the only Worcester news source being gutted by the GateHouse.

In May -- a little more than a year after buying the Worcester Magazine -- GateHouse reduced its staff to just one reporter tasked with putting out the weekly paper when it laid off Editor Walter Bird Jr. and Arts and Entertainment Editor Joshua Lyford.

The move reduced the magazine’s staff to reporter Bill Shaner and placed T&G Entertainment Editor Victor Infante as the content editor for Worcester Magazine.

Earlier this year, GateHouse laid off Worcester Magazine photographer Liz Brooks.

Last week, GateHouse and Gannett announced that they will merge in an effort to save money, forming the largest newspaper chain in the United States.

It is unknown whether the most recent round of cuts, which came less than three months after GateHouse laid off several dozen journalists at newspapers across the country, have anything to do with the merger.

Keep in mind that @GateHouse_Media had just eliminated ~170 jobs and that the @Gannett deal was already in the works. So this doesn’t make much sense even on GateHouse’s own terms. https://t.co/SiRZMdeG3h — Dan Kennedy (@dankennedy_nu) August 13, 2019

“Keep in mind that @GateHouse_Media had just eliminated ~170 jobs and that the @Gannett deal was already in the works. So this doesn’t make much sense even on GateHouse’s own terms,” Dan Kennedy, associate professor at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism, tweeted on Tuesday.

MassLive has reached out to McFarlane, GateHouse Media and Mayor Petty for comment.