Newspaper chain with 125 dailies offers worker buyouts

PITTSFORD, N.Y. — One of the country's largest newspaper chains is offering buyouts to its employees and said most of those workers would have their last day in mid-September.

GateHouse Media, which is based in this Rochester, N.Y., suburb and publishes 125 daily newspapers and more than 600 weekly and business papers in 35 states, made the announcement last week in a memo to employees.

"The action supports ongoing efforts across our organization to reduce costs," Chief Executive Kirk Davis said in Tuesday memo. "While we continue to make progress toward our goal of being revenue positive by 2018 and year-to-date our revenue performance has improved and outperformed our industry peers, we continue to see revenue declines and must align our expenses accordingly."

A call seeking comment on the severance offer was not immediately returned.

Among its larger newspapers, according to its parent company's 2015 annual report:

• The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch with a daily circulation of more than 115,000.
• The Providence (R.I.) Journal with a daily circulation of more than 85,000.
• (Sarasota, Fla.) Herald-Tribune with a daily circulation of more than 60,000.
• The Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal with a daily circulation of 57,000.
• Rockford (Ill.) Register Star with almost 55,000 daily circulation. Gannett sold the Register Star to GateHouse in 2008.

In December, GateHouse sold the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which it owned for nine months, to casino magnate and major Republican donor Sheldon Adelson for $140 million.

The company had about 9,500 employees across the USA at the end of December, according to the annual report of GateHouse's parent, New Media Investment Group (NEWM).

More than 1,200 are union members and aren't included in the offer, at least initially, the memo shows; it is unclear where those workers are located. Employees in its New England publishing group — which includes the (Brockton, Mass.) Enterprise, the (Framingham, Mass.) MetroWest Daily News, The (Quincy, Mass.) Patriot Ledger and many weeklies — also aren't part of the deal.

Those choosing to participate will receive one week of severance pay at their base pay for each year of service, up to a maximum of 13 weeks. Workers with 20 years or more of service will receive payments of up to 17 weeks.

Workers have until Aug. 29 to express interest in participating in the program and have until Sept. 7 to reconsider.

Employees also were told in an information packet that if the severance offer does not meet certain cost-saving goals, an "involuntary reduction in force may occur."

New Media Investment Group said year-over-year revenues at its "same store" properties had decreased by 3.2% in its second quarter ending June 26.

The company also reached an agreement in that period to acquire the Fayetteville Publishing Co., based in North Carolina, for $18 million. The deal is expected to close in the current quarter.

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