Growing signs Gannett in broad job downsizing

With its revenue and stock slumping, the company is quietly engaged in a far-reaching round of buyouts and job cuts across the country, based on recent published news accounts and reader mail I've gotten. Absent a big change in advertising revenue, I suspect staff reductions will continue into next year and beyond. The intriguing question: Is Corporate's top brass at the gleaming Virginia headquarters (above) also taking a hit?

USA Today certainly has. Management just announced plans to reduce newsroom employment by 45 jobs -- nearly 9% -- in one of the bigger cuts I've seen at any newspaper. The situation is looking desperate when Gannett whacks employment that much at one of the few papers with growing circulation. Yet, USA Today is only the latest. Look at what's happening in Cincinnati; Reno; Detroit; Nashville; Indianapolis; Burlington, Vt., and Phoenix. (Got one I missed? Send me details with story and/or memo links.)

Senior executives told Wall Street last month that more severance expenses are likely by the end of this year, suggesting more job cutting. But they didn't give a precise number or say where the trims would fall. That may explain investors' growing impatience with GCI's efforts to boost earnings and its stock price.

CEO Craig Dubow was similarly vague when he told employees in September about the company's ongoing "transformation'' and the pain it would cause. "Will we be structured like we are now? I doubt it,'' Dubow wrote. "Will we have more or fewer newspapers and TV stations than we have now? That depends, but we're working on finding the right portfolio."

The nation's top newspaper publisher employed 49,675 people earlier this year, public documents show. (See chart, left; click on it for a bigger view.) This year's annual Form 10-K, filed March 1, showed overall employment fell nearly 6% in the previous 12 months. My hunch is that we'll see an even bigger drop when GCI files its next 10-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the spring. As that chart shows, Gannett's employment peaked at 53,400 workers in early 2001, reflecting acquisitions the previous year, including The Indianapolis Star. Still, even with last year's cuts, Gannett has many more employees than it did in 1994, the last year for which I could easily find 10-Ks disclosing employment levels.

One big mystery: What's happening at Corporate's offices? As well-paid executives there order everyone else to do more with less, are they also reducing Corporate's staffing and taking on more work themselves? Have they given up catered lunch on china for a soggy sandwich from the cafeteria? What about those six-figure bonuses and seven-figure goodbye kisses?

Corporate employed 600 people in early 2005 -- the last year GCI disclosed headcount at headquarters, based on my review of 10-Ks. Curiously, that figure wasn't provided in the two most recent filings.

Update: With the help of a Gannett Blog tipster, I was able to solve the mystery here.

[Data: SEC forms 10-K]