Anchorage Daily News to lay off 47 employees, cut wages

The Anchorage Daily News announced Thursday it will lay off 47 employees and cut the wages of remaining workers. Here is the email sent to employees by Patrick Doyle:

From Anchorage:
To: All Employees
From: Patrick Doyle
Subject: Workforce and Wage Reductions
Date: Thursday, March 19, 2009

Last week, we told you that we were still developing our expense reduction plans and would finalize and communicate them to you as soon as possible.

Today, I want to share with you what those plans mean for the Anchorage Daily News. We are announcing plans to reduce our workforce by 47 positions. Although many of these job eliminations will occur through involuntary layoffs, there also will be opportunities for employees to voluntarily elect a severance package where reductions are occurring in work groups of two or more employees. If enough employees do not take the voluntary option, then the work groups will be reduced according to least tenure.

Reductions will occur in all areas of the operation. Employees affected by this reduction are being notified and provided with information about a transition package. We appreciate all that they have done for Anchorage Daily News and will do everything we can to make their transition as smooth as possible.

In addition, we are implementing wage reductions for all employees whose compensation exceeds $25,000 annually. Every employee will receive a letter detailing the impact of the wage reduction on their pay and will have the opportunity to ask questions. These wage reductions take effect on April 13, 2009.

These are difficult decisions, especially when it means saying goodbye to so many of our friends and colleagues. But we must make these additional cuts to ensure the viability of our newspaper and to adjust to these new competitive and economic realities.

There have been many questions about work furloughs. We are not planning furloughs for the first half of the year. However, we may revisit that option later in the year if financial conditions do not improve. We think it’s important you know it’s a possibility, and details will be provided if and when a decision has been made.

Again, I want to apologize for all of the disruption that you have experienced over the last several weeks. This is a very difficult time for all of us, and it will continue to be difficult as we all adapt to a new way of doing business. We can only respectfully ask, as we have in the past, that you keep your focus and continue to work hard to help our newspaper succeed.

Please contact Human Resources if you have any questions about the severance program or wage reductions. Thanks.

Jeez, looks like the same boilerplate email most other MNI employees got. Hat tip: comments. Photo credit: adn

To see info on other McClatchy layoffs go here.

UPDATE: Differing from the number in the email to employees, the ADN says 45 employees, not 47.
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