Mike Reed, CEO of the newspaper publishing corporation Gannett, is requiring his workforce to take one week of unpaid leave in December and is seeking volunteers for buyouts.
According to an internal email obtained by Poynter, the financially ailing company has put a freeze on hiring and will temporarily suspend matching contributions to employee 401(k) accounts beginning on Oct. 24.
Reed”™s email included a caveat that job cuts may not apply to employees of the NewsGuild union ”“ nearly 1,500 employees in 50 newsrooms are represented by that union.
Gannett is the nation”™s largest newspaper chain with more than 200 print papers ”“ locally, the company publishes The Journal News, the Poughkeepsie Journal and the Times Herald-Record. The company laid off 400 employees and eliminated 400 open positions in August company after posting a second quarter net loss of $53.7 million.
“These are truly challenging times,” Reed wrote in his email. “The company continues to face headwinds and uncertainty from the deteriorating macroeconomic environment which has led the executive team to take further immediate action.”
