Local newsers in Rochester, MN, got news that might’ve been stunning even weeks ago, but earns barely a resigned “yup” now: mandatory, unpaid furloughs. The Post-Bulletin reports KTTC and KXLT, the NBC and FOX stations in Rochester told employees they’d all be required to take five days of unpaid leave by April first as a cost-saving measure.
“There isn’t a media company out there that isn’t having some pain,” KTTC VP/GM Jerry Watson told the Post-Bulletin. ”Everybody has to share the pain. Our stations here had a great year last year. However, a lot of stations didn’t.”
LATEST LAYOFFS: KMOV/St. Louis reporter John Mills would seem to be the kind of guy a station likes having around: hard-working, good in the field and as a fill-in anchor; and a journalist with credentials: A Peabody, and Edward R. Murrow Award, and, just last fall, the local “Riverfront Times” named Mills “Best Reporter.” He seems the the kind of guy you build a strong bench by keeping in the dugout. Oh. Except, these days local TV station are playing baseball with one marquee name, maybe, and a smattering of little leaguers willing to play pro ball for very little money, and agree to clean up the stands after the game.
Mills lost his job this week. After thirteen years at KMOV, he was laid off, and his award-winning bio got the traditional trip into the local news memory hole. Mills, though, had a few thing to say, via his personal 
