Intern Injustice: Gannett Gives The Middle Finger To Three Ala. Interns

Outrage.

That's the feeling I get when I read that media giant Gannett Co. was forced to make "quick and drastic" budget cuts that left three interns without summer jobs at a Montgomery, Ala. newspaper.

"I would not have done this if I had any other choice," [Wanda] Lloyd, editor of the Montgomery Advertiser, told Richard Prince's Journal-isms.

According to Prince, the decision came after the Black College Wire interns had already made preparations to go to Alabama, including taking urine tests. Lloyd said that after a recent meeting of Gannett publishers, she was told by her publisher, Scott Brown, that the newspaper would be asked to take a look at possible cuts for the rest of 2007. (She was on vacation last week attending a high-school reunion.)

Can you believe this? No choice. And then she takes a week off of work! Why don't you give the interns your week's pay?

Actually, Wanda, you did have a choice. If you (or your superior) were up on tracking the paper’s finances, you’d probably find some wiggle room to allow the interns that had already taken urine tests and were ready to depart for Alabama to stay for a single, solitary summer (three months, people).

Thankfully, the displaced interns were quickly picked up by South Bend-based Schurz Communications, which owns 15 dailies and five weeklies. A Schurz rep said he couldn't let "these young people have their internship pulled out from under them."

No kidding. And thank God for that.

Surely the interns were not that financially draining. I'm willing to bet that these interns collectively would have made one-third the salary of the lowest paid editorial staff member at the paper. And to cut their trip short after they applied, were accepted, and went through the prerequisites to attend? The nerve!

I’m not hooting and hollering because this is about intern injustice. I’m furious because this is complete negligence. Not only is it completely irresponsible to go through such steps and balk at the end, but it is rude to give the administrative middle finger to some young kids who one day probably wished they could be employed at that paper.

Well, Wanda, I guarantee you won’t see those three ever working for you in the future. Talk about cultivating the next generation!

I understand papers are going through budget cuts – this much is evident if you ever simply stumble across Romenesko’s daily headlines. But a newspaper is a company – and companies have annual budgets, handled ahead of time so that they suddenly don’t come up short one day. You know what that means? Someone at Gannett knew they’d be wielding the axe. Maybe it wasn’t Lloyd, maybe it wasn’t her boss, but these things don’t just happen overnight. The budget doesn’t suddenly get cut like that, and if it does, it means someone was withholding information.

Pity the fresh-faced interns that had just walked into the room to take the blow.

According to their own press release, “first-quarter net income at Gannett, publisher of USA TODAY and USATODAY.com, fell to $210.6 million, or 90 cents a share, from $235.3 million, or 99 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.”

So Gannett, you’re telling me that after baiting some college interns (who probably make under $12,000 a year if they work full-time at a "real job"), you pulled the switch on them because you didn’t have enough money out of that $210 million to pay them for three months?

"The money for the three interns was not in the budget," Lloyd said. In order to meet new budget targets, she said, she might have had to cut a full-time staff member. "I had to make that decision very quickly," she said. "I just didn't see any other way."

Despicable. Gannett's CEO probably pays more in taxes.

My fellow bloggers over at Get Rich Slowly often talk about getting value in investing; that is, saving money on something you don’t often use and spending it on something you use everyday. It’s clear to me that Gannett saw the interns as a temporary expense and cut it.

What they should realize is that the interns are an investment, and when some of their older writers retire, they’ll need to replace them. It’s safe to say that these three won’t be waiting.

It’s no surprise that newspapers need a shot in the arm. Here’s an example of them turning away fresh ideas in favor of running the ship into the ground...and shooting themselves in the foot, instead.

I call on Gannett to reverse the decision and reinstate the interns’ temporary, probably near-minimum wage jobs. It’s clear at those pay levels the interns aren’t doing it for the money. Funny how that’s exactly why Gannett’s doing it.

Nonetheless, I must say bravo to Schurz, who stepped up to the plate in a very big way. I’m sure it wasn’t an easy fix, but clearly someone over there understands how to keep the coffers slicked and maybe invest in a company’s future a little bit. In doing so, they made a major PR splash for themselves and embarrassed a major media company and its complete lack of tact. So good for you, Schurz – you just took on some incredibly resourceful and thankful interns. And you’ve won some hearts in the process.