Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Gannett Co. Lays Off Thousands As CEO Pockets Millions

By MARC McDONALD

Gannett Co., the biggest U.S. newspaper publisher by daily circulation, has been taking a hatchet to its work force in recent years, even as its CEO pockets millions in compensation.

In the latest round of cuts, announced Wednesday, Gannett announced another 1,400 layoffs in the next few weeks. That amounts to 3 percent of the workforce.

One person at Gannett who isn't suffering these days is CEO Craig A. Dubow. In 2008, Dubow pocketed $3.7 million in compensation. That includes a base salary of $1,166,667, as well as stocks, options and other compensation. The year before, Dubow got $7.9 million in compensation.

In 2008, Gannett cut 4,600 jobs. It also required "most of its remaining employees to take unpaid leave in the first and second quarters."

In 2008, Gannett was ranked as "one of America's worst places to work," according to employee survey site Glassdoor. Dubow's approval rating stood at 19 percent, according to the survey.

Last year, Gannett stock fell in value 75 percent. Gannett lost $6.6 billion in 2008.

3 comments:

Ron Southern said...

Yet no one wants to kill him? I guess there'd be another just like him who'd pop up out of the trenches to take his place, claim the credit, and stea; the remaining money.

Jack Jodell said...

That CEO should rightfully face a firing squad. So much for business self-regulation. This proves what a load of conservative jive talk THAT notion is! A little dose of heavy regulation and outright socialism just might be a damn good thing for this country!

Marc McDonald said...

Hi Ron and Jack, thanks for your comments. I think the worst part of the fact that all these American CEOs are raking in enormous pack packages is the fact that their companies are all going down the tubes.
For example, Detroit CEOs have always made vastly bigger pay packages than their counterparts in Japan. And yet, now Detroit is in the toilet.
By contrast, Japan has 12 automakers. True, some of them are struggling in this global recession. But nobody is seriously talking about ANY of them going bankrupt.
And because they're way ahead of the curve on technologies of the future (such as hybrid cars), Japan's automakers have a bright future ahead of them.