Furloughs, Shorter Hours Coming to Gannett U.K. Papers, Too

By: E&P Staff Newsquest, Gannett Co.'s community newspaper publishing group in Great Britain, is asking its employees to take the same unpaid furlough that is mandatory for the chain's U.S. employees.

With employees expected to object to the move, the Guardian newspaper reported Tuesday, Newsquest is also floating alternatives to the unpaid week's furlough, such as shorter work weeks, or unpaid days off stretched over several months.

Guardian media writer Oliver Luft, citing unidentified sources within Newsquest, said the publisher of the Herald in Glasgow, Scotland, and 16 other dailies and some 200 weeklies is "in the process of asking its 6,000 U.K. staff to consider taking a week's unpaid leave to help it reduce costs." Gannett's U.S. employees have been told to take an unpaid week off by the end of March.

As an alternative, Newsquest is suggesting employees reduce their work week by two and a half hours, or take one unpaid day off a month.

Last December, Newsquest imposed a pay freeze, laid off some employees, and folded some papers. In its most recent quarterly report, Gannett indicated Newsquest was suffering from many of the same problems besetting U.S. newspapers. Real estate ad revenue, for instance, plunged nearly 60%, while overall classified revenue fell 35.3%.