Posted on 03/06/2014 5:59:33 AM PST by shortstop
The Tampa Bay Times newspaper will begin offering buyouts to current workers in advance of a round of layoffs, according to company memos posted online.
This comes as the St. Petersburg-based newspaper faces increasing financial strain and works with business consultants to “improve the company’s financial results.”
Employees will have between March 10 and 24 to consider the packages, which could include up to 13 weeks of severance, plus two extra weeks, according to a memo sent to employees by Human Resources Director Sebastian Dortch that was posted on the website of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, which owns the Times.
“Even if you are not interested, this is an opportunity to take stock of your place in the Times’ future,” Dortch wrote. “This is an important time to understand where you stand.” After the buyout phase, “it is clear that this work will result in some job reductions around the company.”
The Times has been working to sell news bureaus, extra parking lots, the employee cafeteria and other assets to raise cash in recent years, and last December, the company took out a $28 million loan from a non-traditional lender, Boston-based Crystal Financial LLC. Half that amount went to pay off current debts and the full loan comes due in December 2016.
Both the Times and Poynter have seen their financial position strained in recent years, as have many media companies. The Times saw its Sunday circulation fall about 6 percent to 355,853, and daily circulation fall 4 percent Monday through Friday to 299,985, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.
The Times already conducted a round of layoffs in 2011 and temporarily cut pay in 2012. The company’s most recent loan is backed by a half dozen parcels of real estate, including the company’s headquarters in downtown St. Petersburg, part of which the Times recently made available for lease.
Times spokeswoman Jounice Nealy-Brown declined to answer questions about the moves, but sent a statement, reading, “We are finding some ways to improve our results without compromising our quality. We want to support the colleagues whose jobs will be affected.”
growing up it was informative and reasonable but boy has it become a liberal cheering worthless fish wrap.
Joe, I used to use the Times to wrap the fish, but it used to make the fish stink.
The Obama economy.
Will repost White House talking points for food.
St.Pete Times always was more liberal than the Tampa Tribune.
Then they became one and the same and unreadable.
Few “news reports” are truly factual.Almost all are “opinion” or otherwise slanted.They seem to be incapable of straight news.
If you want to learn about local events, look to foreign news sources, or monitor police/emergency frequencies.
The print press companies backed the wrong technology for the last few decades.
Instead of becoming more ethical, trustworthy and less political, they went full on full BS for marketing purposes.
Have you noticed that newspaper stands now mostly direct potential buyers inside?
I'm shocked that anyone still subscribes to them at all!
I can’t wait for the Miami Herald and Sun-Sentinel to finally assume room temperature.
The Tampa Bay Times (formerly St Petersberg Times) is rabidly lib. If the main news story of the day is complimentary to conservatives, they totally abandon the idea of running any news headline at all and use an op-ed or poll as the headline.
Their most loved agenda item is how nobody in FL pays enough taxes.
I won’t even buy them for the coupons, so I am proud to say I am part of their problem.
My “favorite” endorsement was a judgeship. It ran something like this. “This person is reasonable, has wonderful experience, blah, blah, blah. The other person is also qualified, but not quite as much, but is black. We feel diversity is most important, so we recommend the black candidate over the other one.”
I kid you not. It was staggering.
Wow. I quit my subscription. The Tampa Tribune started a St. Petersburg Tribune that’s a lot more economical. Tampa Bay Times has so many different price ranges - that makes no sense whatsoever. What’s the price for everybody? Anyway, gonna try the St. Pete Tribune instead.
Their renewal dept isn’t very good either. I was certain that my renewal was in the fall but when I called, they said, it was this February. So, I got months and months of newspapers for free cuz their billing was messed up even after I tried to correct them. Switching to St. Petersburg Tribune instead.
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