Furlough Week a Challenge for Gannett Editors

By: Joe Strupp Even when newspaper editors are on vacation or home sick, they are rarely off the job completely. E-mail checks, quick phone calls and the like are standard, even if one is at some resort in the Bahamas or in bed with the flu.

But with the furloughs that are spreading through numerous newspaper chains this first fiscal quarter, many editors are being ordered to stay off the job completely -- a challenge for most.

?I didn?t contact the office, I didn?t check e-mail, I was able to take a real vacation,? said Karen Magnuson, editor of the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, one of the many Gannett Co. papers ordered to institute one-week furloughs. ?This is the first time. It was a strange feeling because I am so into what I do for a living.?

Magnuson said she went on a vacation with friends out of state, which made it a little easier. ?It helps that I was out of town.?

Gannett, which mandated the one-week furloughs for all employees during the first three months of 2009, gave strict orders that no employees do any work-related activities. Even checking e-mail is out.

?We have relayed that in a number of ways, in all communications about the furlough program, we have emphasized that fact,? said Bill Behan, Gannett's vice president of labor relations. ?The wage and hour laws require us to be very complete in this. If they work during that week, we are required to pay them.?

Behan said the zero-tolerance approach has provided some relief for workers who may already be stressed about losing a week?s pay. It does allow them some relaxation and an excuse to put work out of their minds for at least a week.

?This is a less burdensome alternative,? he added. ?There is a lot of joking about the vacation you never had when you joined the newspaper business.?

Other Gannett editors agreed the no-work approach was unusual. ?It was a change in habit for me because I am used to using some cell phone, some Blackberry,? said John Dye, editor of Gannett?s Green Bay (Wis.) Press-Gazette. ?I didn?t use it for a week for the first time in my career.?

Dye also left the state during his week off, extending a previously planned vacation in February for another seven days. He added that many newsroom employees are having to do without, including some who use their own cell phones and must screen calls.

?I left my Blackberry at home,? recalls Randy Lovely, editor of the Arizona Republic in Phoenix, who spent his February furlough week in Tennessee at his parents? home. ?Some people have disconnected their e-mail feed to their blackberries. They are just making sure we are not in violation of labor laws.?

Editors at other newspaper chains that have instituted furloughs, such as MediaNews Group, Media General and Lee Enterprises, offered similar stories.

One sign of the tight restrictions for Media General is the voice mail message left by Tampa Tribune Editor Janet Coats on her phone, which indicates she is out this week and ?will not be able to check voice mail.?

?A lot of editors just try to shut it off,? said Kevin Keane, editor of Bay Area News Group -- East Bay, a nine-paper MediaNews chain outside San Francisco. ?It can be hard for some.? Keane says he is taking his week off beginning March 23, but not leaving the area. ?I have chilled down before.?

Chris Hardie, editor of the La Crosse (Wis.) Tribune, a Lee paper, says his orders are similar to others, do no work, and stay out of touch.

?We have to be completely unplugged,? he explained. ?That is a challenge because it is our nature to stay in touch.? Scheduling his furlough week for May, Hardie plans to work around the farm he owns with his wife: ?I will cut wood and dig in the dirt.?

But not everyone is following the mandates. Denver Post Editor Greg Moore says he plans to work during his furlough week, although he is requiring his staffers to stay away during their unpaid week.

?It is unusual,? he said about the furlough approach. ?I think it is kind of tough to be completely unreachable. I am not completely unreachable in any other area of my life.?