Today is the last day for many of Gannett’s New Jersey staff, including Editorial Page Editor Fred Snowflack and half of the entire staff of The Daily Record, the first daily newspaper I ever worked for. In addition to the Daily Record, two other papers, the Courier News and the Home News Tribune, will relocate to the offices of the Asbury Park Press.
In addition, Gannett continued their furlough strategy for the first quarter of this year, forcing all non-union employees to take a week off without pay. Meanwhile, Gannett’s board of directors will likely pay top executives millions of dollars in bonuses this year, in part for making employees take furloughs.
All this might be necessary for a company trying to stay in the black, but that’s not the case with Gannett. They reported net income of $174 million during its fourth quarter, which amounts to a 30 percent INCREASE from last year. That’s $174 million in profit.
For the full year in 2010, Gannett profited $588 million, up 66 percent from $355 million in 2009.
All on the backs of layoffs, furloughs and pay freezes. Ain’t corporate-owned media grand?
