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Media General Orders Employee Furloughs

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By TED JACKOVICS

tjackovics@tampatrib.com

Published: February 19, 2009

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

"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," Morton wrote.

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

Employees must take four days off by March 29, three days from March 30 through June 28, and three days from June 29 through 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, publisher of USA Today, and MediaNews Group, which publishes the San Jose Mercury News, have turned to furloughs in recent weeks as a way 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 from newspaper staffs in the past year.

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

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