Gannett Could be Ready to Cut 4,500 More Jobs, Blog Reports

Gannett Blog reports that the media company might be preparing for more across-the-board layoffs. The blog, which has done a good job predicting previous layoffs, says it receives a comment recently from one its best sources that says: 1. Principal executive and Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore has ordered layoffs...

By Ray Stern

June 19, 2009

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Gannett Blog reports that the media company might be preparing for more across-the-board layoffs.

The blog, which has done a good job predicting previous layoffs, says it receives a comment recently from one its best sources that says:

1. Principal executive and Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore has ordered layoffs across the board from U.S. Community Publishing to USA Today, Corporate and the Broadcasting division. 2. On top of layoffs, salary reductions will happen in the broadcast division: a 10% salary reduction. 3. No new furloughs for the rest of the year. 4. Layoffs are scheduled for July 8. Estimated to be 4,500 for U.S. Community Publishing.

Community Publishing is the division that publishes newspaper like the Arizona Republic.

Jim Hopkins of Gannett Blog sent an inquiry about the potential layoffs to a Gannett official, but hasn't learned yet whether his commenter is accurate. Suffice to say, this isn't exactly an unbelievable rumor.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.