The New England Media Group said yesterday it will offer voluntary buyout packages to employees at The Boston Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, as it aims to cut 125 jobs from the two papers, including 19 in the Globe newsroom and editorial pages.
Fifty-five jobs to be cut in the buyout will be outsourced to outside contractors, said Alfred S. Larkin Jr., the Globe spokesman, primarily in finance operations.
"Our expectation is we will be able to accomplish our goal without resorting to layoffs," Larkin said.
The buyouts, the second round since the fall of 2005, come as the newspapers struggle with falling circulation and advertising revenue against the backdrop of similar declines in the industry. The New York Times Co., parent of the Globe and Telegram & Gazette, recently said that ad revenue at its New England group fell 11 percent in November from the same period a year ago.
In the six months ended in September, the most recent figures available, the Globe's average daily circulation declined 7 percent to about 386,000 from 414,000 a year earlier. The Telegram & Gazette reported an 11 percent decline in average daily circulation in that period, to 89,000.
Dan Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, denounced the outsourcing initiative as "corporate greed at its worst."
Read the full story by Robert Gavin of the Globe Staff
Read memos from publisher Steve Ainsley and editor Martin Baron
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