Tucson will become a one-newspaper town if the Citizen closes in March. Photo courtesy Andy Cripe
On Friday, employees of the Gannett Company-owned Tucson Citizen newspaper got word from on high that they will be jobless by March 21 unless somebody buys the little paper that could. That message was delivered in-person by Gannett’s president of newspapers, Bob Dickey, who flew in from corporate headquarters in Virginia to make the announcement. At the time, editor Jennifer Boice said she gave Dickey credit because the message “wasn’t done via memo or e-mail.”
Now, a new report by Jim Hopkins at Gannett Blog shows that Dickey had another stop on his cross-country trip: Palm Springs, Calif. for a game of golf that cost as much as what a low-paid journalist in the company makes a year. (Glassdoor.com shows Gannett journalists make as little as $27,000 a year. Hopkins put the price of the golf game between $12,000 and $25,000.)
Gannett also owns the Arizona Republic and 12 News in Phoenix and just announced that all employees of the two outlets will be forced to take a week off without pay to help cut costs in the company. See the full details of the golf junket at Gannett Blog.