USA Today Staff Feeling (Fur)lough

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The good news for the roughly 1,500 workers at Gannett Co.'s USA Today is that they each will get to choose a week off between Feb. 28 and July 3.  The bad news is they won't be getting paid for the time off.

With ad pages down 10.5 percent in the last quarter,  the newspaper imposed the furlough and extended the year-old salary freeze another three months. The paper experienced a 17 percent drop in circulation for the six-month period that ended in Sept. '09. Most of the staff was forced to take a two-week unpaid furlough last year.