Gannett to Furlough Workers for Week

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: New York Times

The Gannett Company, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, said on Wednesday that it would force thousands of its employees to take a week off without pay in an effort to avoid layoffs.

Gannett, which owns 85 daily newspapers across the United States including its flagship USA Today, said it could not say exactly how many people would be required to take time off, or how much money the company would save. But it said it would require unpaid leave for most of its 31,000 employees in this country.

Also on Wednesday, USA Today notified its staff of a one-year pay freeze for all employees....

***

With the newspaper industry in increasingly dire financial straits, Gannett’s mandatory week off takes its place in a growing list of grave moves. Layoffs have been widespread, the newspapers in Detroit halted home delivery four days of the week, the Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy protection and owners of The Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer warned that those papers could shut down....

Gannett eliminated 3,500 jobs throughout the company in 2007, and a similar number last year, though it has not provided a final 2008 figure. The deepest round of cuts came last fall, when it laid off some 2,000 or more newspaper employees in little more than a month.

Most of Gannett’s newspapers are small, but they include some major papers, including USA Today, The Detroit Free Press and The Arizona Republic. In this country, it also has hundreds of smaller, nondaily papers and 23 television stations....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/business/media/15paper.html?_r=2&hp

[roseBudd]

1. yes DUers the press we denigrate almost as much as repugs is in danger...

if you think bathrobe bloggers or Common Dreams is going to have anything for you to read, when they don't actually originate any of the actual reporting, don't employ lawyers to force compliance with Sunshine laws or file FOIAs, all I can say is losing the newsrooms of any newspaper is a loss we will regret.

[ogneopasno]

2. This former newspaper worker thanks you.

The newspaper model is clearly broken, but the vast majority of reporters and editors are smart, engaged people trying to do the right thing, and blogs just aren't going to fill the void that a collapse of the newspaper would bring.

[roseBudd]

3. A collapse of newspapers will be catastrophic as the radio model has none of ...

distribution costs that are hurting the newspapers.

Without newspapers DUers would not be so well informed.

[roseBudd]

4. kick, if you think good riddance to newspapers you may want to rethink about the reality of...

a world without newspapers.

If you think radio or TV will devote the same resources you are mistaken.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. I could not agree more. At this point, bloggers play a crucial role in news coverage, but

they don't yet have sufficient news-gathering capacity, sources, etc. I'm a frequent critic of the MSM, and I know there have been unforgiveable sins committed. But I'm also the first to post something incredibly important and valuable that comes to light as the lead story on the NYT or WP frontpage, and that happens very often. Anytime there's an objectionable article, we see a ton of profanity-laced responses. Meanwhile, an important piece from the MSM ends up on the Greatest Page, but the source is never recognized as praiseworthy.

I'm really heartened to see some appreciation in responses to some recent media pieces I've posted. I know folks -- and none of them are getting rich -- who work at these endangered papers, and are in fear for loss of their jobs each day. They are on our liberal side, and do their best with increasingly limited resources and prospects for the future.

[Romulox]

6. USA Today will not be missed if (and when) it eventually folds.

[roseBudd]

7. Losing USA Today will cause the loss of small newspapers all across America

The parent company is Gannett. Most of their markets are medium to small cities with just one paper.

[CatholicEdHead]

8. KARE-TV in Minneapolis is Ganett owned and it will effect them

I expect to see a rolling week off for on-air personalities. We really cannot see the people behind the cameras and in the control room. I expect it to be handled like holiday vacation time blocks are.

[roseBudd]

9. What liberals can do (and it's free) to help newspapers...

Many of us say we get our news from DU in LBN & that's great, it enables us to find the info we are interested in quickly.

I know it's how I stay well informed.

But we need to the one that paid fo it our page views. Because theyare the ones who pay the Paul Krugmans and Frank Richs, and employ the investigative reporters that withou them we would never know many things that go on in the world.

We liberals should make a conscous effort to click through to the originating articles web site. By doing so we are helping that newspaper survive by rewarding them with our pageviews.

Our pageviews will help them make money on online advertising, but more importantly we are voting for the kinds of articles that interest us.

That info is dissected and pored over daily.

We can be a roving band of Nielsen families.

If newspapers fall we are screwed.

[roseBudd]

10. kick to save a newspaper, by reading it online, not Yahoo, or Google or Common...

Dreams or wherever else newspaper content is being parasitized.