More on Dallas buyouts

Another story related to the Dallas Morning News, which mentions former Beacon Journal reporter Leona Allen, who apparently is staying.

Journalists of Color Line Up for News' Buyout Offer

Some of the top-ranking and most prominent journalists of color at the Dallas Morning News -- including Dwayne Bray, the metro editor; Vernon Smith, deputy international editor; Lennox Samuels, Mexico City bureau chief and former deputy managing editor; and sports columnist Kevin Blackistone -- said today they are applying to take a buyout.

News management reportedly said the offer to apply had been accepted by at least 85 employees, its goal.

"Our diversity is really taking a hit," reporter Toya Stewart told Journal-isms in an oft-repeated phrase. Stewart said she was going to graduate school at the University of Minnesota to earn a master's degree in health journalism. She has been at the paper 6 1/2 years.

Bray said he will join ESPN at its Bristol, Conn., headquarters as news editor on its remote production crew.

Night Photo Editor Alysia Oglesby, who like Bray is African American, is due to start this month as night deputy director of photography at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Smith, who has been at the paper 18 years, said, "My plan is to see if I can find myself a good medium-market managing editor's job. I've had a good run here. I'd like to leverage that into running my own shop."

Blackistone, a 20-year veteran of the paper, he said he planned to move "and cobble out something on the East Coast, writing, TV, Web site stuff." .

The buyout offer consists of two weeks of base pay per year of employment up to 15 years, plus three weeks' pay for each year of service that exceeds 15, the News reported on Aug. 11, adding that the cash offer was capped at one year's pay.

"I am going to take some time off," said Samuels, a 23-year News veteran who for the past 2 1/2 years has been Mexico City bureau chief. "I'm looking at a number of opportunities in and out of the business."

Bray's deputy, Leona Allen, who also is African American, will be acting metro editor, he said. "I really think the Metro department responded to my leadership. It was already a great department," Bray said. "Most of them will still be here. We've done some great work covering the Dallas city government, the Dallas Independent School District, the fast-growing Collin County. I feel like I've let my staff down, but . . . it's time for me to see what the TV side has to offer," Bray said. An assistant sports editor at the News, Noel Nash, also left for ESPN, supervising a database unit, Bray said. However, he left right before the buyout offers.

All those interviewed lamented the buyouts' impact on diversity at the paper, which reported 18.6 percent people of color in the last census of the American Society of Newspaper Editors -- 4.9 percent Asian American, 7.8 percent black, 5.7 percent Hispanic and .2 percent Native American.

Click on the headline to read the full story.