News-Leader publisher says newspaper will survive, but makes no mention of furloughs

While I am sure Springfield News-Leader Publisher Tom Bookstaver, in a column in today's edition, is sincere when he says the newspaper iis "strong and healthy," it would have been nice if he had addressed some moves the corporate heads at Gannett have made in recent months.

Not once in the column does Bookstaver mention the two weeks of unpaid furloughs that every News-Leader employee has had to take. Is this an indication of a problem throughout the Gannett chain or is this just another one of those cases where local readers have had to settle for less because of companywide problems?

I have no doubt that Bookstaver fully believes what he writes:

Let me assure you - we are going to be here for a long, long time. There still appears to be no end in sight to people having a strong desire to know and understand what's going on in their community. Unless that stops, we will be here. We reach over 75 percent of adults on a weekly basis and will continue to do that with our growing family of products.

Of course, it would be nice to know how Bookstaver arrived at that 75 percent figure. If his newspaper is truly reaching 75 percent of adults, he needs to tell his secret to other newspapers, especially in his own company, so that they can duplicate that kind of success.