Several dozen staffers at CNHI’s 77 newspapers returned from the holidays to an unwelcome surprise: a mandatory four-week furlough with no pay. One of the affected reporters tipped me, and Bill Ketter, CNHI’s veteran senior vice president for news, confirmed it.
The furloughed group was 46 people, Ketter said, and included newsrooms and other departments. That’s roughly 3% of the company’s workforce. Beyond the continuing financial challenges of the current environment, he said, the furloughs were precipitated by a very “soft fourth quarter,” usually the best of the year for newspapers, buoyed with ads for Christmas shopping.
