Posted in Politics

Gannett tightens up more

   July 6, 2007

whisper

The alt-weekly in Burlington, VT reports that its local Gannett-owned daily newspaper, Burlington Free Press, has initiated more cost cutting measures: eliminating free parking for employees and bottled water from the breakroom. The bottled water was replaced with mesh screens over bathroom faucets so employees can get fill their mugs there.

Employees were upset.

By Tuesday, longtime Publisher Jim Carey got wind of the grumbling and, we’re told, met personally with employees.

“Essentially, Carey said the paper is not making enough money and they have to make cuts somewhere,” said one Freeps journalist. Carey told workers that management is “trying to avoid layoffs, though that is under discussion.”

The quote from reporter:

“Our CEO makes $16 million a year and our news operation has become unimportant — even locally.”

RO Note: In the first quarter of 2007, Gannett only had $210.6 million in net income. 

Read: Staff at Gannett’s Burlington paper loses free-parking perk

Share:

Rules for Comments

Your comments are welcomed, but there are some rules to follow:

(1) Be Nice. No comments that slander another, no racism, no sexism, no personal attacks.

(2) No Harrassing Comments.

(3) No Libel. That’s saying something is not true about someone. Don’t do it.

(4) Keep it clean. Nothing vulgar, obscene, or sexually related. No profanity or obvious substitutions.

(5) I reserve the right to remove any comments that violate our rules or are inappropriate. I am not responsible for what is posted. Comments may not appear right away until they are approved by a moderator.

(6) Limit your comments to the subject in this story only, and limit comments to 1,500 characters or less. Do not post copyrighted material. Comments will not be added to stories that are over five days old.

(7) No posts may advertise a commercial business, political candidate, or political group. Links in a comment aren’t allowed.

8) Commenting too many times may result in your comments not being allowed. Readers will begin to ignore your views.

9) Email me if you believe a comment violates any of these rules, and it will be deleted.