Employees of KSDK (Channel 5) were told Wednesday that they all will have to take one week of unpaid “vacation” this quarter. This order comes down from parent company Gannett and is a move to avoid layoffs. KSDK wouldn’t comment except to refer to Gannett. Unclear at this point what the unions will do about this and whether contracts allow the furloughs.

Gannett CEO Craig Dubrow is quoted as saying in a memo to employees: “After much consideration, we decided a furlough program would be the fairest and least intrusive way to meet these fiscal challenges in the first quarter, which is traditionally the lightest time of the year. We sincerely hope this minimizes the need for any layoffs going forward.”

Here’s a good story from Editor & Publisher about how Gannett-owned newspapers (85 including USA Today) are affected.