More newspaper industry misery: Unpaid furloughs and pension freeze at Newark Star-Ledger

[marmar]

from Editor & Publisher:




'Star-Ledger' Appears to be Planning Unpaid Furloughs
By Joe Strupp

Published: March 20, 2009 1:30 PM


NEW YORK Executives at The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J. appear to be planning an unpaid furlough of staffers, as well as a pension freeze to save money.

A printout of a series of e-mails purportedly between Editor Jim Willse and Publisher George Arwady -- widely circulated among staffers at the paper for the past week and provided to E&P -- indicates discussions last week of unpaid furloughs that could reach two weeks and initial plans to announce the move as early as Monday, March 23.

"Aside from all of the questions we'll get about the pensions and furloughs, we'll need to be able to respond to the larger concerns staff will have," Willse writes to Arwady in a March 12 e-mail, according to the printout. Later he states, "Most of all, they're going to want to hear there's a plan. They'll absorb a lot if they believe it's leading someplace."

Arwady on Thursday would neither confirm nor deny any such furlough plan. Contacted again Friday about the e-mails, he stated: "I don’t want to have a conversation, thank you."

Willse, who is on vacation until Wednesday, could not be reached for comment. Calls to his cell phone were not immediately returned. Donald Newhouse, president of Advance Publications, is also out of town, according to his office. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003953774

[ogneopasno]

1. The Guild at "my" old paper offered to take unpaid furloughs to help out with cuts. Management said

no and laid people off. It's sad all around.

[fizzgig]

2. gannett did that earlier this year

and the paper in my town just cut nearly 50 jobs when they shut down their presses and began printing in another city.