Following a February 1 news conference to mark the transfer of ownership from Fidelity to Boston Herald publisher Pat Purcell, Convey told the Phoenix that one of his long-term goals is to reverse some of Fidelity’s most unpopular downsizing moves, which included closing a number of local offices and putting editors who had run one weekly paper each in charge of two or three.

“Do I recognize it as a problem to have editors running several publications? Yes, I do,” Convey said. And though he cautioned that reopening offices and hiring more editors “depends on how well we do,” he added, “In time, yes, I think we will be able to do that.”

Trouble is, Convey’s words came on a day when the talk was not of new hires, but rather of departures. At CNC’s Needham headquarters, Purcell announced that the chain of approximately 100 newspapers in Greater Boston and on Cape Cod was eliminating 36 of more than 1000 jobs. The most prominent departures were those of editor-in-chief Mary Jo Meisner and her top two lieutenants, Vicki Ogden (who supervised the chain’s metro papers, such as the Cambridge Chronicle and the Somerville Journal) and David Trueblood (who was in charge of arts coverage chainwide). By putting Convey, the Herald’s long-time managing editor for features, in charge of CNC, Purcell has ensured that a trusted lieutenant of his own will oversee the editorial product of his new company.

Seven positions at the Herald were eliminated as well, including that of Bill Weber, who ran BostonHerald.com. The Herald’s Web sites and CNC’s TownOnline.com will be merged under the direction of Purcell’s daughter, Erin Purcell.

The most prominent holdover is CNC president and publisher Kirk Davis, who oversaw much of the downsizing during the past few years — downsizing that transformed the company from a multimillion-dollar loser into one that is reportedly marginally profitable, but that has drawn fierce criticism from staffers and community activists (see “Don’t Quote Me,” News and Features, February 4, 2000). In an interview after the news conference, Davis defended his cuts, saying, “If any other company had owned these papers the past few years, they would have made the same changes.”

Purcell announced last September that he was purchasing CNC; the cost has been estimated at $150 million. The sale was delayed several times, as Purcell found it difficult to obtain financing in the midst of a softening economy.

But despite the gloomy economic news, the watchword last week was optimism. Clearly Purcell — as well as Convey and Davis — is hoping that the Herald, with its urban base, and CNC, with its strength in Boston’s affluent suburbs, will give advertisers an attractive alternative to the Globe. If they succeed, then Convey will be able to do the hiring he wants even as Davis protects the bottom line.