Furlough update

Here's the list so far:

• St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Non-union employees -- about 300 people -- must take off 1 week by March 31.
• Rapid City Journal: As previously posted, four employees were laid off and employees must take time off by April.
• Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier: All employees must take off 1 week by April 1.
• Longview Daily News: Employees were asked to volunteer for furloughs. If not enough people sign up, they'll consider making them mandatory.
• Bloomington Pantagraph: 4-day furloughs by April 17 for hourly employees; 4-day pay cut for salaried employees (from comments)
• La Crosse Tribune and River Valley Newspaper Group: "Non-commission" employees must take 40 unpaid hours off between now and April (e-mail tip)
  

Are there others? Add them in the comments.

Rapid City Journal lays off 4, announces furloughs

The Rapid City Journal, in Rapid City, S.D., laid off four employees and announced all employees will be required to take un-paid days off, but said the details of that plan were not finalized.

(From the comments)

Montana weeklies merge

The Valley Irrigator in Newell, Mont.; the Belle Fourche Post and Belle Fourche Bee in Belle Fourche, Mont., will merge, publishing Wednesdays as the Butte County Post starting Oct. 22. Previously, the Bee published on on Saturdays, the Post and Irrigator published on Wednesdays. The reason behind the merger:

“As economic conditions continue to deteriorate resulting in reduced advertising spending and coupled with unprecedented increases in fuel and newsprint costs, it is critical that we reorganize the publishing processes of our weekly newspapers in the Northern Hills communities,” said Brad Slater, publisher of the Rapid City Journal which owns and operates the Newell and Belle Fourche newspapers.

Offices in Newell and Belle Fourche will stay open, and officials say delivery will not change. No word on staff changes or layoffs. (Moving one publication from Saturday to combine it with two others on Wednesday though? You'd think something would be changing in that configuration.)