Gannett lays off dozens after losing money in 2nd quarter

"Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper chain with more than 250 papers, executed a round of layoffs Friday, a week after the company announced its second quarter results: a loss of $54 million on revenues of $749 million," Angela Fu reports for The Poynter Institute.

It's unclear how many many were laid off, but at least some were from papers with large rural audiences such as the Monroe News-Star in Louisiana, the Athens Banner-Herald in Georgia, and the Billerica Minteman in Massachusetts. "The NewsGuild, which represents more than 1,500 Gannett journalists across roughly 50 newsrooms, had tracked 35 layoffs across 20 newsrooms by Friday afternoon, according to president Jon Schleuss. Two of them were from unionized papers," Fu reports.

Former St. Cloud Times reporter Andy Rennecke noted in a tweet that the Minnesota paper "once had four full-time sports writers, a sports editor, a sports desk chief and usually four part-timers" in the sports department. "Now, it's down to one person. F--- Gannett for everything it has done to my old paper. I loved my co-workers and we loved what we did."

"The union has called on Gannett to reduce executive pay and 'frivolous spending' instead of cutting jobs," Fu reports. "Last year, CEO Mike Reed made $7.7 million while the median salary at Gannett was $48,419. The company also instituted a $100 million stock buyback program in February. Earlier this week, Reed bought 500,000 shares of the company’s stock, worth $1.22 million. Gannett has also invested in anti-union lawyers to counter union drives and delay contract negotiations, according to the NewsGuild. The company currently faces 14 open unfair-labor-practices charges, according to a National Labor Relations Board database."