Gannett newspaper head Bob Dickey and the meaning of shared sacrifice

When Bob Dickey, president of Gannett's Community Publishing division had to break the news in December 2009 that his employees would have to take unpaid furloughs in 2010, he let them alone they would not be alone.

"We are instituting the furloughs during the first quarter because it is traditionally the lightest time of the year for us. Non-union USCP employees, including me, will be furloughed for five business days during the quarter," Dickey told employees in an e-mail sent to all of the company's newspapers, including the Springfield News-Leader.

That spirit of sacrifice cost Bob Dickey $11,788.

Of course, Dickey could afford it. The calculation of his furlough amount came from his $612,981 base salary. According to a proxy statement filed in March with the SEC, Dickey's total compensation package for 2010 was $3,447,780, including a $600,000 bonus for his excellent work.

It remains to be seen what kind of bonus Dickey will earn this year. As noted in a post earlier today, Dickey, in another e-mail, told the employees at his newspapers that 1,400 of them are being let go, including 18 at the News-Leader. From the memo:

National advertising remains soft and with many of our local advertisers reducing their overall budgets, we need to take further steps to align our costs with the current revenue trends. Each of our local media organizations faces its own market conditions, challenges and opportunities. Therefore, it has been up to each local publisher to determine his or her unique course of action.


While we have sought many ways to reduce costs, I regret to tell you that we will not be able to avoid layoffs. Accordingly, approximately 700 employees within USCP, or about 2% of our company’s overall workforce, will be let go. Publishers will notify people today and we will make every effort to reach everyone by end of day. It is important to note that these decisions do not reflect individual performance and we thank and respect those employees for their work. We will do everything we can to help them and to minimize the impact on our other employees going forward. In an effort to reduce the number of people being let go, there will be furloughs in the coming months but they will be limited only to those on the USCP corporate payroll who make over a certain salary. You will be notified by your publisher if you are among this group.

Obviously, Dickey will be among those who will have to take a mandatory furlough. Hopefully, it won't cause any hardship for his family.

Since the furloughs appear to be limited to the company's newspaper division, they likely will not affect Dickey's superior, Gannett CEO Craig Dubow, whose 2010 compensation was over $9 million.