Gannett Employees Required to Take Three Weeks of Unpaid Time Off
Back in August, Gannett and GateHouse finalized merger plans, turning the two largest newspaper chains in the United States into one big print media amalgam.
Locally, that meant that the Courier-Post, Delaware News Journal, Bucks County Courier Times, Burlington County Times, and Doylestown Intelligencer would now operate under the same ownership group.
Similar to Sports Illustrated and other media outlets crunched during a global pandemic, Gannett is implementing furloughs in this fashion:
New today: @Gannett announced unpaid newsroom furloughs of 1 week per month during April, May and June. We’re told journalists earning more than $38K are subject to the plan. This is prompted by COVID-19
— Gregory Holman 📲📻 (@gregoryholman) March 30, 2020
Additionally, Gannett executives will be taking a reduction, which is explained in a memo to employees from CEO Paul Bascobert, obtained by Poynter:
Everyone will be touched by these changes in some form. For some it will be economic, for others it will mean covering the work of a colleague on furlough, for many it will be both. Our executive team has stepped up and will be taking a 25% reduction in pay. Similarly, I will not be taking any pay until these furloughs and pay reductions have been reversed. We realize these actions will put economic hardship on all of you and I don’t take these measures lightly. I would simply and humbly say “thank you”. Our goal is to ensure that when we get through these difficult times, we emerge fully able to continue our important role serving our readers, clients and communities. This is the mission that binds us and tests our resolve.
Furloughs are shitty, but they happen. I had to do two weeks back in 2008, when working for a company called Media General during the recession. Similar to the Gannett plan, we would work something like three weeks, then take our first furlough week, return to work for three more weeks and then serve our second furlough week. The model was rolled out that way to make sure you weren’t getting a pay check of $0 for bunching together consecutive weeks of unpaid time off.
The Gannett initiative, mind you, is for all employees, not just sports writers. But the folks you’re probably familiar with are Tom Moore, Dave Isaac, and Martin Frank, who have been writing about the Sixers, Flyers, and Eagles for some time now. These papers also employ a number of freelancers and other contributors who don’t meet that $38k threshold. Those folks have probably been feeling the economic squeeze from day one.