Telegraph Media Group (TMG) has confirmed that it will cut 50 jobs from its editorial staff.

The losses, which TMG attributed to the "continuing and accelerating fall" in advertising revenue and the soaring cost of newsprint, represent 10 per cent of the editorial staff of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. About 500 people will remain in editorial after the cutbacks.

In a memo circulated to staff, Richard Ellis, Executive Director of Editorial at TMG, said advertising revenue had declined faster than the group could have predicted. The majority of job losses are expected to be in production, magazines and pictures, but Mr Ellis said "few areas will be unaffected".

"We are working flat out to make sure that the process is both fair and is concluded as swiftly as possible. We will consult with the colleagues who will be leaving," he said.

TMG, owned by the brothers Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, employs 1050 staff, and just over half are journalists at the two Telegraph titles.

Rumours circulated at the beginning of this week that the group was due to make redundancies. Today's announcement follows news last week of 90 job cuts out of a workforce of 425 at The Independent.

The quality newspaper market has suffered from the decline in advertising which has attended the economic downturn. The market is down by around 10 per cent since the summer.

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