USA Today Staffers Brace for More Bad News

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According to GannettBlog, an independent journal that covers media conglomerate Gannett Co., the 1,500+ employees at Gannett's flagship national paper USA Today are on tenterhooks following Publisher Dave Hunke's remarks at a staff meeting last week concerning an imminent significant reorganization of the paper that will include "involuntary layoffs."

Grappling with industrywide drops in circulation and ad revenue, a slowdown in business travel, and fierce challenges from national competitors New York Times and Wall St. Journal, USA Today has experienced a 14 percent drop in circulation from a year ago and an 11 percent decline in advertising in the first quarter of 2010, compared to a year ago. The GannettBlog post notes that the A section of the 28-year-old paper one day last month featured only two advertisements.