Gannett Offers Buyouts To Community Newspaper Staffers

Facing continuing revenue declines, newspaper publishers are tightening their belts again. Gannett Co.’s community publishing division is offering early retirement to 665 employees, in what could be the largest reduction in the company’s workforce in several years.

The offer, announced by community publishing division president Bob Dickey, is available to Gannett employees who will be 56 years of age and have 20 years of service as of March 31, 2012. It includes a continuation of health coverage, benefits, and pay at the rate of two weeks for every year spent with the company, capped at a total of 52 weeks.

While Dickey emphasized that the offer is entirely voluntary, he hinted that the company may be forced to implement more drastic cost-cutting strategies, implicitly including layoffs.

Like many other big newspaper publishers, Gannett Co. has seen its workforce shrink dramatically since the middle years of the last decade. From 53,000 employees at the end of 2003, layoffs and buyouts cut the total workforce to 32,600 at the end of 2010, for a 38.5% reduction over this period. 2011 likely brought further reductions as the company seeks to offset continuing revenue declines.

Gannett Co.’s total revenues have declined from $8.03 billion in 2006 to $5.24 billion in 2011. This is due mostly to a steep decline in publishing advertising revenue, from $5.37 billion to $2.51 billion over the same period.

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