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Unpaid Furloughs Ordered For Tribune, WFLA, TBO and Centro Employees

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By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 18, 2009

Updated: 02/18/2009 02:26 pm

Employees of Media General Inc., the Richmond, Va., parent of The Tampa Tribune, News Channel 8, TBO.com and Centro, will take a mandatory 10 days off without pay during the remainder of the year, President and Chief Executive Marshall N. Morton said in an e-mail to workers this afternoon.

"So far in 2009, economic and corporate earnings reports have been worse than expected," Morton said in announcing the furlough plan.

"Despite aggressive sales initiatives and significant cost reductions, I regret to report that we need to build in additional expense savings to offset the revenue shortfalls our divisions anticipate."

The furlough plan will not affect the various news products, said John Schueler, president of Media General's Florida Communications Group.

Employees must take four days off in the period through March 29; three days between March 30 and June 28; and three days between June 29 and Sept. 27.

"The company is also asking its unionized and other employees under contract to agree to participate in furloughs in lieu of layoffs," Morton said.

Some large news media groups, such as Gannett which publishes 85 daily newspapers including USA Today, and MediaNews Group which owns 54 dailies including the San Jose Mercury News and the Oakland Tribune in California, have turned to furloughs in recent weeks as a new avenue to contend with the recession that has ravaged advertising revenue.

Furloughs enable companies to maintain personnel, unlike the buyouts and involuntary layoffs that have trimmed hundreds of employees from newspaper staffs in the past year.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.

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