Media General to Furlough Employees 10 Days

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 19, 2009 - 9:24am.

Richmond, Va. - In the latest sign of hard times in the nation's newspaper industry, Media General, a publisher of 24 daily newspapers including The Tampa Tribune, Richmond Times-Dispatch and Winston-Salem Journal, said that it will require employees to take 10 unpaid furlough days by the end of September.

The company, which already has announced plans to suspend its 401(k) match and stock dividends, said that the move will help it save $28 million this year and avoid layoffs.

"The current economic outlook requires us to be even more cautious than we already have been regarding our revenue expectations," said Marshall Morton, the company's president and CEO.

"Despite aggressive sales initiatives and significant cost reductions already implemented, we need to build in additional expense savings to offset the revenue shortfalls we anticipate."