DENVER—ap Inc. said Friday that employees at its New Mexico and Texas newspapers have been asked to take one-week furloughs to avoid layoffs.
Senior Vice President of Operations Tony Tierno said employees will take unpaid leave in February and March. It wasn’t immediately known how many employees will be affected or how much money the move would save.
“We tried everything to avoid this but we still thought that having one week of unpaid leave might alleviate the need for layoffs in the future,” Tierno said.
The newspapers are part of the Texas New Mexico Newspaper partnership.
MediaNews’ Web site shows the partnership owns seven newspapers and that MediaNews owns two newspapers outright in New Mexico. The Texas New Mexico partnership also operates the El Paso Times in Texas.
In all, MediaNews has four partnerships in 14 Texas newspapers. Those partnerships include the Lake Country Newspapers and Graham Newspapers Inc.
Tierno said managers will work with employees to determine when and how they will take time off.
In Minnesota, union workers at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, which is owned by MediaNews, agreed Friday to take a week of unpaid time off as the newspaper seeks to cut costs. The paper’s Newspaper Guild unit has 307 members.
In California, MediaNews newspaper employees were asked to take a week of unpaid leave by the end of March. Furloughs there will affect 3,300 employees at more than 50 daily and weekly newspapers, including the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Oakland Tribune and Los Angeles Daily News.
William Dean Singleton, chief executive officer of MediaNews and publisher of The Denver Post, is chairman of the board of The Associated Press.
