The Arizona Republic just went through a rough round of layoffs last month, just before the holidays. Now, its employees are being given more bad news by their bosses, and this time, their sister television station, KPNX-TV (Channel 12), is being included hurt. Jim Hopkins over at Gannett Blog had the scoop this morning.
Employees learned today they’ll have to take a week off without pay between now and the end of March. It’s part of a huge cost-cutting measure by the outlets’ parent, Gannett Company, that will affect some 40,000 employees nationwide, Hopkins reports. The blogger’s previous speculation was that the mandatory furlough would affect only newspaper employees, but it turned out the TV folks got stuck in the muck, too. As one Gannett employee I spoke to today put it, it’ll mean everyone will have to go through a pay period when he or she gets just half a paycheck.
This kind of news hits Arizona particularly hard, with each being the largest English-language outlet in its respective field. And it kicks off a year that many in media predict will be the worst in the industry’s history.