Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Modesto Bee offers buyouts to 100-plus

The Modesto Bee offered voluntary buyouts Monday to more than 100 employees.

About one-quarter of The Bee's 455 employees were offered buyout packages. Not all who apply will be approved, President and Publisher Margaret Randazzo said. She said only a limited number of buyouts will be accepted from each division.

Randazzo said the buyouts were offered to employees in every division, except for ad sales representatives and reporters. The buyout packages include up to 26 weeks of pay depending on tenure, and medical coverage.

The Bee, owned by Sacramento-based McClatchy Co., does not have a set number of buyouts it will accept, she said. But, she added, "We anticipate that the percentage of our work force approved will be in the low single digits."

Mark Vasché, editor and senior vice president of The Bee, said the buyouts will affect a "very small" number of the newsroom's 90-plus employees and thus should have a minimal impact on readers.

Click on the headline to read the full story by Christina Salerno in the Bee

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I read about this this morning.

Cuts at newspapers across the country were bad in 2007. 2008 is playing out to worse than 2007.