Gannett Ordering Company-Wide One-Week Furlough

McLean's Gannett -- the nation's largest newspaper chain and the publisher of USA Today, the nation's largest-circulation paper -- will ask almost all of its employees to take the equivalent of an unpaid one-week furlough during the first quarter of this year to save payroll costs and avoid layoffs.

For non-union employees, the furloughs will be mandatory. "Unions will be asked to accept furloughs in lieu of layoffs," Bob Dickey, head of Gannett's newspaper division, said in a memo to all employees obtained by Editor & Publisher. "We all will be sharing the financial hardship."

Gannett owns 85 daily newspapers, including USA Today, and nearly 900 community papers. Also, the company owns 23 television stations, more than 300 newspapers in the U.K., advertising and marketing subsidiaries and a stake in CareerBuilder.com.

Gannett has more than 46,000 employees.

-- Frank Ahrens
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