By: Mark Fitzgerald With once-unimaginable cutbacks being imposed at newspapers nearly everywhere, an event that never would be covered in the past is suddenly newsworthy: Employees of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and its Wehco Media Inc. parent got Christmas bonuses this year.
"We wouldn't want to disclose the exact amount, but it is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars company-wide," Democrat-Gazette Publisher and Wehco owner Walter E. Hussman Jr. told E&P.
The Little Rock paper and its siblings still have a hiring and salary freeze, but continued its tradition of the year-end bonus for all company employees.
"It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas over here," Executive Editor Griffin Smith said in a Friday memo to Hussman as checks were being distributed in the newsroom.
"From all of us on the third floor, profound thanks to you and the other stockholders for your consummate generosity and your faithfulness to company tradition, notwithstanding these unexampled hard times," Smith added.
When Wehco announced the hiring and wage freeze at its papers, the company of about 1,300 employees said it hoped to continue its record of no layoffs.
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