Layoff Week grinds on for more than 30,000 newspaper employees, waiting to learn whether they’re among 600 getting laid off. “I just can’t imagine a business surviving when employees have to come to work everyday, wondering if that will be the last,” a reader says. Plus: We’re watching Gannett’s stock all day. Updated at 2:25 p.m. ET:
Cincinnati: Editor Tom Callinan is talking to Enquirer editors about “possible scenarios” as Friday’s deadline for 50 companywide buyout applications draws closer. “But we really won’t know what the future will hold until we see who is on the final list on Friday,” local blogger Newsache quotes Callinan telling staff.
Indianapolis: Seven newsroom employees were laid off, according to Indiana blogger Ruth Holladay. They were notified by top editor Dennis Ryerson, “in person or through a telephone call,” Holladay says. They were among a reported 20 — down from an initial 23 — cut loose from the 1,440-employee paper, readers here say.
Montgomery, Ala.: “Checking in from Montgomery,” a reader says. “We’ve been told (per the publisher’s letter last week) that the layoffs will come down tomorrow, the 20th. I’m sure those of us working at the Advertiser will keep everyone here posted throughout the day.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning paper is slated to lay off 10 of about 375 employees. Editor Wanda Lloyd told the newsroom in an 8 p.m. e-mail last night: “I know all of you are anxious about tomorrow. Let’s plan to get together in the middle of the room for a brief staff meeting at 4 p.m. to talk about the future.”
Phoenix: Two reports that 35 workers are being laid off from The Arizona Republic‘s pressroom. “The other ‘common workers’ are getting thrown out without a buyout!” one reader says. “Shame on the Republic management!!” Like the Enquirer, the Republic has delayed any layoffs, pending responses to a buyout offer. I still don’t know how many offers are on the table, however. Plus, were the buyouts only for certain employees — such as those in the newsroom? Why wouldn’t pressroom employees be eligible, too?
Across Gannett: Angry employees slammed newspaper division chief Bob Dickey (left) and other top brass for taking too long to identify those getting laid off. “Absolutely horrible, waiting to find out who the next casualty was,” a reader said, late last night, in one of more than 150 comments. “The way that management carried this out felt very much like a hit and run.”
On Wall Street: What’s next for Gannett shares? We brace ourselves for the 9:30 opening of stock markets this morning — a day after GCI plunged 4.6%, erasing what little was left of the layoff bump.
More on Gannett Blog
- Day 2: More agony for jittery newspaper employees
- Day 1: Gannett launches one of industry’s biggest mass layoffs
- Roll call: Our exclusive paper-by-paper list of job cuts
- Protect yourself: Advice for threatened workers
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[Image: today’s Enquirer front page, Newseum]