Martore doesn't rule out second-quarter furloughs

A Wall Street stock analyst asked Chief Financial Officer Gracia Martore about furlough plans for 2010 during this week's UBS media conference in New York. The analyst prefaced his question by noting that Gannett had instituted one-week to two-week furloughs in the first half of this year.

Question: "What are your plans for next year? Are you going to duplicate that? Or perhaps you're not going to do that?"

Martore: She first noted that the company had recently announced one-week furloughs for the first quarter of 2010, mostly in the U.S. newspaper division and at Corporate. Then, regarding the second quarter and beyond, she said: "We'll see how the year evolves before we make any decisions about future times."

To be sure, I wouldn't read too much into Martore's response, because companies always like to leave themselves some wiggle room, in the event circumstances change. But it certainly would have been more comforting if she had ended her reply by indicating that additional furloughs looked unlikely at this point, assuming that is the case.

I was prompted to review the session by several comments in Wednesday's UBS post, where readers reported that Martore had, indeed, indicated there would be second-quarter furloughs. (I didn't hear her say that, however.) The question-and-response took place Wednesday at the UBS conference. To listen to the full one-hour presentation, go here. The Martore exchange occurs toward the end, at about the 49:30-minute mark.

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