Publishers Cut Benefits to Find Latest Savings Gatehouse, Medianews End 401(K) Matches; Seattle Pensions

Looking under every fiscal rock for financial relief in these unprecedented bad times for the newspaper business, a number of publishers are saying that temporarily suspending retirement benefits for some of their workers is a way to save money. At least two major publishing companies said in recent days that they will suspend payments into workers' 401(k) retirement savings plans while one daily paper said that it will freeze its pension plan (while not affecting its 401(k) plan).