Friday, June 19, 2009

Report: unpaid furloughs -- and other departures -- hit the Anchorage Daily News

A reader passed this along:
Everyone at the paper with exception of the ad sales staff will be required to take five unpaid furlough days. The publisher must also take days off. Managers have to take five days in a row, others can take one day a week over five weeks. Apparently this is starting soon -- this month or next.


Also, a handful of veteran reporters and copy editors have decided to leave at their own choosing. Longtime Outdoors columnist Craig Medred took a buyout. The newsroom has been whittled down to a shadow of its former self.

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22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gee, it can't have anything to do with biased reporting, that no one wants to buy, so then, what's going on with that?

Anonymous said...

The ADN is a good newspaper, but its newsroom was bloated, a remnant of the newspaper war with the Anchorage Times.

It has needed to lose some weight, and I doubt these "veterans" will be much cause for alarm.

Now that Howard is retired and no longer in a position to protect the ADN, this had to be expected.

Anonymous said...

With those days off, they can stalk the Palin family some more.

Anonymous said...

Similar furlough announcement expected at the FWST this month, with a required one-week unpaid to be taken in the second half of the year.

Interestingly, not all employees will be required to comply with the program.

Anonymous said...

More info on the FWST furlough, please? Who is getting a pass?

Anonymous said...

Heard also the high and mighty "we won't have furloughs because we are solid" Charlotte Observer just announced five day "unpaid vacations" (furlough).

Anonymous said...

Comments? Especially from all these people here that are crying that only the employees take cuts while management goes unharmed:

".....
McClatchy's February announcement noted that Gary Pruitt, McClatchy's chairman and chief executive officer, declined his 2008 and 2009 bonuses and other executive officers did not receive bonuses for 2008. Today, the company announced that Pruitt's base salary will be reduced by 15%, other executive officers' salaries will be cut by 10%, and no bonuses will be paid to any executive officers for 2009. In addition, the company has reduced the cash compensation, including retainers and meeting fees, paid to its directors by approximately 13%, and the directors declined any stock awards for 2008 and 2009...."

http://www.mcclatchy.com/pressreleases/story/2233.html

Anonymous said...

For all of these papers that have "announced" their furloughs, were they previously mentioned in the last round?

I.e. did they say, we are doing this now, and if we need to we will do a one week furlough in the second half, etc?

I am pretty sure most of these papers are just that, but still curious if there are "new ones"

Anonymous said...

The Idaho Statesman is also going forward with one week furloughs for the entire building, including sales.

Anonymous said...

Any info on the Sac Bee re: furloughs?

Anonymous said...

biloxi just announced furloughs will commence-no specifics -havent got to the office yet

Anonymous said...

“The ADN is a good newspaper”
-----
What are you smoking? Clinton’s special issue cigars? Check the box for the ML markings, you are hallucinating!

Anonymous said...

To ever put commissioned sales people on an unpaid furlough is idiotic. Their week off in Boise could easily COST the company in forfeited revenues of ten times the rate of the furlough saving. That is just stupid math. An average rep over there bills $65,000 per month and they have commissions of around $5800 per month.
A loss of $16,250 in potential revenue to save $1450 is the kind of math that got MNI into financial trouble.
Ken

Anonymous said...

Well Ken ( 2:54) I believe the key word for the Statesman is idiotic.
However, I do disagree that the average Sales commission payout being 5800.00, those days are long gone due to management changing the commission payout on a nearly monthly basis thus resulting in losing their star reps.
It's the classic "stepping over a dollar to pick up a nickel" Statesman theory.

Anonymous said...

So who is exempt from taking a furlough at the FWST?

Anonymous said...

Sac Bee management said several months ago that furloughs might be considered if the economy continued to dive. I'd say furloughs are coming soon to the leftovers still working at the Sac Bee.

Anonymous said...

We have a publisher who has no back bone and won't stand up to the far left wing activist editors and reporters. We have lost thousands of readers since last year because Zencey, O'Malley and Dougherty push their anti-Alaskan, anti-Christian agenda despite the loss of circulation. At this rate, it will only change when we are all permenently furloughed.

Perry Mason said...

Furloughs were just announced in Tacoma this week. The advertising department is included. Kurt Vantosky, VP Advertising should take the next 52 weeks off and save the company $135,000. He wears the same color shirt every day, is obsessive compulsive about most things, and never has the guts to listen to anyone that has an opinion other than his own right wing, 7th day Adventist point of view. And, he and Cheryl Dell, Publisher of the Sac Bee, were in cahoots on illegally taping most advertising manager's meetings for more than a year.

Denny, Alaska said...

Want to know how bad things are getting at the ADN? A lesbian (self-confessed) columnist is now given front-page coverage in both print and on-line editions of the paper.

Us long-time residents of the area want venerated columnist Mike Doogan back.

Soon. (Although such a development would probably bee way too late to save ADN.)

Anonymous said...

Denny, Alaska 7:26- What the hell does being a lesbian (self professed) have to do with having a column on the front page coverage and web page? I have been a self professed lesbian my entire life, so what?
-Ken

Anonymous said...

The ADN has always been biased, but now it is activly pushing it's all-gay everyday propaganda despite the floor falling out of circulation and the activists in the newsroom are no longer reporting, but spewing their personal politics and lifestyles on almost every page of the paper. If we continue to publish a paper that is hostile to the vast majority of our readers, the only people we will have left buyig our paper will be the gays and Zencey's mother.

Anonymous said...

Julia O'Malley is a good columnist. I'm glad the ADN finally hired a columnist again. It was sort of sad that the paper went without a columnist for so long. Beth Bragg was okay but Julia was better. Mike Doogan was wonderful and the paper is just not the same without him. However, it is wishful thinking to think that he will come back. he is a state legislator and novelist now. PS Julia's mother is sheila sellkregg who just ran for mayor and who is a city council member.