Gannett to Institute Another Round of Furloughs, Despite Rise in Company’s Stock Prices

Gannett, the behemoth parent company of the Arizona Republic, is issuing another round of furloughs, despite financial improvements, according to an internal memo sent out last week.

This will be the third round of furloughs for the company since the first quarter of 2009. 

The memo, which is written in the form of a Q and A, with Gannett providing both the Qs and the As, claims that Gannett is trying to “achieve greater efficiencies across our businesses.”

What better way to monitor efficiency than telling people not to come to work. Perhaps it’s to see who won’t be missed?

Gannett, like most news organizations, was hit hard by the Internet.

According to the memo, Gannett claims to have figured out an advertising scheme and is seeing greater ad revenue than in previous quarters.

So why is the company doing furloughs again when the stock price and the economy are getting better (an actual question Gannett asked itself in the memo)?

To help maintain momentum going into the new year, of course (actual answer Gannett gave itself in the memo).

The furloughs wont include everyone in the company, according to the memo, just specific groups of employees.

We can probably assume that those “groups” won’t include Gannett executives, or CEO Craig Dubow.

With more and more wire stories covering the pages of the Republic, what’s an unpaid week off for a few more reporters, right?