Appleton, Wis.
Owner: Gannett Co. Inc.
Date: Dec. 4, 2008
24 employees were laid off.
Source: The Post-Crescent
P-C cuts 25 staff positions
Layoffs are part of Gannett’s 10% overall reduction
THE POST-CRESCENT • DECEMBER 4, 2008
APPLETON — Twenty-four employees were given layoff notices at The Post-Crescent this week as part of a 10 percent work force reduction throughout the newspaper’s parent company, Gannett Co. Inc.
The involuntary layoffs, 5 percent of The P-C’s local work force, affected employees in the editorial, advertising, creative services, circulation and finance departments. Another editorial employee accepted a job elsewhere, creating a vacancy that will go unfilled.
The Post-Crescent has seen advertising revenue decrease by 10 percent this year due to a national recession now in its 12th month. As it has for many print and electronic news media outlets, advertising in the automotive, real estate and employment sectors has fallen off considerably, with the intensity of the revenue drop-off accelerated in the past two months.
“As our customers struggle with the current economic difficulties and reduce advertising investments, we must make difficult decisions to reduce expenses,” said Genia Lovett, The Post-Crescent’s president and publisher. “We have tried very hard to reduce our work force and other expenses in ways that will have the least impact to our customers.”
Online advertising revenue has increased within Gannett Wisconsin this year, but not at a pace to make up for declines in print advertising, Lovett said.
As part of the cutbacks, a weekly newspaper — the Wrightstown Post-Gazette — will close, with its final edition Dec. 12. The Post-Gazette is a joint product of The Post-Crescent and the Green Bay Press-Gazette. The Denmark Press, another weekly operated by the Press-Gazette, will cease publication Dec. 17.
Across Gannett Wisconsin Media’s 10 markets with daily newspapers, 74 employees were laid off, with 18 more vacancies created by attrition or by leaving positions unfilled. The Appleton locations house departments that provide services to other Gannett Wisconsin locations for information technology, human resources, finance, online, marketing, production and circulation.
This round of work force reductions is the second in the past four months. In August, Gannett enacted a 3 percent work force reduction; eight Appleton employees were laid off.
“We are so fortunate to have talented employees who care about our community and the services we provide for our customers,” said Lovett. “While it is very difficult to make these decisions, we have to adjust our expenses so we can continue to be the leading information source in the Fox Valley.”
Gannett Co., based in McLean, Va., is the nation’s largest newspaper chain, with 84 metro and community dailies and USA Today, the nation’s largest newspaper by circulation. The company also operates nearly 900 nondaily publications and 23 television stations in the United States.
Gannett’s 10 newspapers in Wisconsin are in Appleton, Green Bay, Oshkosh, Manitowoc, Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, Marshfield, Wausau, Stevens Point and Wisconsin Rapids, each with a local Web site.
Gannett Wisconsin also produces dozens of weekly newspapers, shoppers and niche publications.
Gannett purchased eight of its Wisconsin newspapers — all but Green Bay and Wausau — from Thomson Newspapers in 2000.
