Ruben Navarrette Jr., the most widely syndicated Hispanic columnist in the mainstream news media, is being laid off from his job as editorial writer and columnist at the San Diego Union-Tribune,

Navarrette's columns will continue, however, Syndicated by the Writers Group since 2002, Navarrette's column appears twice a week and has 111 clients, Hill said. CNN.com will also continue to publish a Navarrette column. It runs weekly under a freelance contract and differs from the pieces for the Washington Post Writers Group.

Navarrette told Journal-isms, "I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. I write 15,000 words a month," counting freelance columns and speeches. He also appears weekly on National Public Radio.

Navarrette said he plans to continue to build "Ruben Navarrette Inc." but was concerned about decreasing diversity at the Union-Tribune. His 2005 arrival, he said, meant the editorial board's 10 members included an African American, a Latino and a woman. With his departure, "everybody left on the editorial board is a white male."

Navarrette's layoff of is part of a restructuring of the paper, which was sold by the Copley family last year to the Beverly Hills private equity firm Platinum Equity.Among others reported among the layoffs is Ozzie Roberts, a black journalist who has written for the Union-Tribune or the old San Diego Tribune at least since 1983.

"We are making changes, beginning today, to build a different kind of newsroom at the Union-Tribune, one that can thrive in an environment of efficiency, fast change and multimedia demand," Editor Jeff Light told readers Thursday evening in a note on the paper's website

Navarrette writes frequently about immigration issues and has been critical of President Obama.

In a 3,000-word piece for Latino Magazine, Navarette said:

"I’m making it my personal mission — in my columns, speeches, radio and TV commentary," he wrote, "to ask my fellow Latinos: How’s that hope and change working for you? And, for many, the answer is: 'Not so good.'

". . . Add up that report card, and you can see, Mr. President, why many Latinos take the view that you’ve been a better-than-average president as far as their community and its issues are concerned. And yet, at the same time, you haven’t been nearly as good as advertised. There is still time to be better."