Feb 6, 2009

Furloughs spread eastward*

MediaNews Group employees in Texas, New Mexico and Minnesota have now been told to take one-week, unpaid furloughs. AP, MPR

*Update: And Massachusetts and New Hampshire (DBJ). MediaNews has papers in 11 states, so I imagine this means six down, five to go.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

medianews is lke a plague, spreading from one to the other until it kills the last newspaper standing in their clutches.

Anonymous said...

It is tough for newspapers, however, this company with their total lack of respect for their employees continue to step all over themselves.

Instead of anticipating a down economy based on trends, instead of listening to suggestions nearly two years ago for volunteer time off, instead of focusing on revenue growth with solid leadership, they continue to chase their tail after the fact.

When you look at a good management team, especially in tough times, most employees will think well of them. This company, even in good times has no such luxury.

I don't want to suggest that they are the only company in newspapers or not that is in tough, but, good golly miss molly, show some vision.

Anonymous said...

in editor and publisher is a quote about furloughs from medianews...they don't know how many people it will impact or how much money it will save. wow. what great planners they have running the show...ready, fire, aim. sure give me a great level of comfort if I was an employee.

Anonymous said...

I have found the answer to Medianews profound problems. All they need to do is get subscribers to pay for a daily product and deliver it a couple of days each week and at the same time get advertisers to pay for circulation that isn't delivered. Don't laugh. It would probably have a better outcome than their current "plans"

Anonymous said...

Singleton's plan for financial solvency involves what is known as Dead Janitors Insurance or Dead Peasant Insurance.

The company takes out life insurance policies on all its reporters, photogs, etc., and then stresses them to death.

Every time one dies, the balance sheet gets a little better.

Anonymous said...

The Daily News isn't giving furloughs a chance. On Friday management announced it would be accepting resignations from any newsroom employee through the end of this week. A severance package will be offered to only those employees management is willing to let go. It sounds as if they're eager to hold onto reporters. The meeting came on the same day that copy editors were given the details of next month's move to West Covina.

Anonymous said...

they have a plan, the plan is bad, they don't know the plan is bad, they don't let the plan work, which will end badly, which they don't know will end badly because they are morons.

after reading this over, it appears i can help them communicate to their well loved employees.