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The Boston Globe isn't the only newspaper in Massachusetts fighting for its economic survival. Earlier today, GateHouse Media New England, which publishes more than 100 community newspapers in Eastern Massachusetts, announced a "temporary" pay cut.

According to an account by Jon Chesto in the Patriot Ledger of Quincy, a GateHouse paper, salaries will be reduced by an average of 7.75 percent, with the lowest-paid employees receiving a 7 percent cut and the highest-paid getting whacked by as much as 15 percent.

The goal is to save $2.5 million this year. The pay cuts would be reversed if and when the recession-battered advertising market recovers.

In addition, we learn from Chesto's story that GateHouse has reduced its full-time workforce in Massachusetts by about 10.5 percent since the beginning of the year, and currently employs about 1,100.

In a company-wide e-mail, a copy of which I obtained shortly after it was sent out, GateHouse Media New England president and chief executive Rick Daniels explains what's behind the pay reductions:

Why are we taking this step? Why now? It's really pretty simple: As much as we have done everything in our collective power to blunt the negative effects the economic crisis has had on advertising, virtually ALL major metropolitan markets have been hit by advertising declines that have soared to the mid-twenties to mid-thirties percent (compared to prior year months) since early January. These revenue declines have dramatically hit the cash flows of most publishers.

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