Gannett next after NYT, McClatchy wage moves?

I'm referring, of course, to whether this year's pay freeze across Gannett's U.S. newspaper division is going to end in the second quarter. After all, The New York Times and the McClatchy Co. recently announced the end of wage squeezes imposed over the past year, when advertising revenue plunged during the recession.

The NYT is rescinding a 5% pay cut, effectively returning wages to where they were at the start of the year, according to a memo earlier this month.

At McClatchy -- publisher of the Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and other dailies -- a wage freeze in September 2008 will be lifted at different times at each newspaper, depending on the "financial performance and challenges at each individual paper,'' CEO Gary Pruitt (left) told employees in a memo.

Last spring, Gannett's U.S. Community Publishing division also imposed a freeze, effective April 1 through March 31, 2010, division chief Bob Dickey told workers in a memo at the time. Although the company has announced one-week furloughs for the first quarter of 2010, it didn't say anything about the future of the pay freeze. Could the steps by the NYT and McClatchy portend a similar move by Gannett?

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