Tuesday, November 04, 2008

10% cut: Dec. 3 now reported to be layoff day

Key dates in Gannett's planned layoff of up to 3,000 workers in the community newspaper division. I'm adding the Dec. 3 date, provided by several of my readers; division President Bob Dickey's original memo says only that the cuts will occur by the first week of December.

Oct. 28 -- Gannett discloses plans for a 10% workforce reduction in the approximately 30,000-employee newspaper division.

Nov. 11 -- Buyout applications due from workers seeking to be laid off voluntarily.

Nov. 14 -- Deadline for publishers to submit proposals on how they will meet Corporate's requested budget cuts. Proposals may include lists of employees targeted for layoff.

Dec. 3 -- Layoffs announced, and affected employees get their pink slips. I assume laid-off employees leave worksites that day, with severance kicking in immediately. They are to receive one week's pay for every year of service, for a maximum 26 weeks. I believe that includes continuation of health insurance until severance checks stop.

Can anyone confirm the Dec. 3 date -- and add details? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
at
Tags: , ,

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous11/04/2008 12:47 PM

    HR people, what's the reasoning behind a Wednesday go date? Is there concern that disgruntled people come back more often from a Friday or Monday dismissal?

    Or is there a financial reason to make it that date? I'm curious, that's all.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous11/04/2008 1:25 PM

    Curious question:

    Last round of layoffs (not the management one, the August round), Westchester let their people go the day of the announcement while (what it seems like) everyone else was given an end date.

    Any thoughts? Other than Westchester is ass-backwards?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11/04/2008 2:02 PM

    Several comments revealed many were laid off effective immediately.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous11/04/2008 2:31 PM

    set your clocks for doomsday, folks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous11/04/2008 11:16 PM

    Gannett has finally found the secret to operating the newspapers- Fire people until the bottom line looks okay. At least it's a plan!
    2009 will bring a few new issues- How do you build the morale of the exhausted and beaten remaining workforce, how will this dramatically reduced workforce create, sell and distribute the paper and will anybody continue buying the paper given the many reductions in size, content quality, depth of writing and price increases.
    Watch what happens when online tanks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous11/05/2008 2:40 AM

    I'll bet a lot of sites will be scheduling their in-house office Christmas party much much earlier this year, like Decembr 2....

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous11/05/2008 1:35 PM

    11:16 PM --- "when online tanks" Errr.. it's been tanked.

    ReplyDelete

Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)