Sacramento Bee takes 87 buyouts

Under continued pressure to reduce costs, The Bee cut its work force on Wednesday by another 7 percent, this time through voluntary buyouts.

The Bee said 87 full- and part-time employees accepted a buyout offer that followed a previous round of layoffs and attrition in June that shrank the staff by 8 percent.

The buyouts went to 23 newsroom employees.

It wasn't clear whether that's the end of the staff cuts. At the time buyouts were offered, Publisher and President Cheryl Dell said more layoffs were possible if there weren't enough takers.

She said on Wednesday the paper won't know for a couple of weeks if the buyouts did the trick.

"I know there's anxiety with not having an answer today," she said.

The newspaper industry has been hobbled by the economic slump and competition from the Internet, prompting layoffs at almost every chain.

Revenue is down 15 percent this year at The Bee's parent, The McClatchy Co. of Sacramento. Advertising has fallen 22 percent at McClatchy's California papers.

McClatchy is also dealing with speculation about its future following the resignation last Friday of Chairman and Chief Executive Gary Pruitt as a co-trustee of four trusts that control much of the McClatchy family's company stock. Pruitt sharply denied a Wall Street Journal column Wednesday suggesting that his resignation was a first step toward a financial restructuring of the company.

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