Gannett Will Sock Smoking Employees With Annual $600 Health Surcharge

By: Mark Fitzgerald The Asheville Citizen-Times is located in the traditional heart of North Carolina's tobacco-growing country, but the newspaper has been a smoke-free workplace for the past five years.

"We're trying to become what we call the healthiest community in our region of North Carolina," Citizen-Times President and Publisher Virgil Smith said in a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon.

If Gannett Co. corporate headquarters gets its way, all of its newspapers, TV stations and other media businesses will ban smoking by Jan. 1, 2007.

And to prod smoking employees to give up the habit, Gannett is forcing them to make a decision starting this January: Enroll in a smoking cessation program -- or pay $50 extra for health insurance every month.

Gannett began notifying its 40,000 U.S. employees of the new policy over the past two weeks. During the insurance enrollment period, employees will be asked if they use tobacco products even occasionally. Those who say they smoke or chew tobacco will be given the choice of enrolling in a stop-smoking program at the company's expensive, or paying the surcharge.

The Washington Times first reported the surcharge plan Wednesday in an article by Marguerite Higgins.

Gannett spokespersons were not immediately available to comment on the policy, which Citizen-Times Publisher Smith confirmed.

"We are a smoke-free company already, so it's not an issue for us," Smith said.

The Citizen-Times went smoke-free gradually, Smith added. The newspaper first banned smoking in work areas, but created a smoking lounge inside the building. "Then we stopped smoking in the building, and created a smoking area behind the building with ash [receptacles]," he said.

"The next step is to ban smoking around the building, and by 2007 we may be ready to do that," Smith said. Area hospitals, schools and some businesses have already taken that step, he noted.

Among Gannett's 99 newspapers is The Leaf-Chronicle in Clarkesville, Tenn., which was created in 1890 by the merger of The Chronicle and the newspaper Tobacco Leaf. Phone messages seeking comment on the Gannett smoking policy from the Leaf-Chronicle's publisher, human resources manager, and executive editor were not immediately returned.