Posted on 03/21/2007 2:37:38 PM PDT by abb
Boston Globe editor Martin Baron sent the following note to the staff today concerning employee buyouts in the newsroom:
To the staff:
Id like to update you on the buyout.
We have accepted buyout applications from 24 of our colleagues in the newsroom. A handful of buyout applications were approved over the last several weeks, and some people already have left the Globe. The vast majority are being notified of their acceptance today, and they will leave the newsroom on various dates over the next few months. The dates have been set so that the newsroom has time to adjust to their departures.
It is always difficult to say goodbye to co-workers and friends. Wonderful people who have dedicated themselves so fully to the success of the Globe will no longer be working with us side by side. I know that all of us wish them well.
Because the buyout was oversubscribed, we were able to avoid layoffs, which would have affected talented people recently recruited to the Globe. The applications of some staffers were not approved. They included certain individuals with special skills and those in difficult-to-fill positions that required immediate replacement. No applications from those who hold the formal titles of section editor, department head, or above were accepted.
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(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Betting Ron Borges' suspension becomes permanent.
Also hoping Dan Shaugnessy is gone.A complete tool.
The last one to go will be Pinch. Hope he turns out the curly-q florescent bulbs.
Update this morning.
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/03/22/globe_cuts_24_jobs_in_newsroom_via_buyouts/?page=full
Globe cuts 24 jobs in newsroom via buyouts
By Robert Gavin, Globe Staff | March 22, 2007
The Boston Globe reduced its newsroom staff by 24 people, or 6 percent, through a buyout that included several of its most prominent and longtime journalists, including two Pulitzer Prize winners, columnist Eileen McNamara and investigative reporter Stephen Kurkjian.
The buyout program was an effort to cut costs but avoid layoffs in the face of some of the harshest conditions for newspapers and other mass media in years. Staffers seeking a buyout had to apply for it. Most were notified yesterday that their applications were accepted, and their departures will occur over the next few months.
"It is always difficult to say goodbye to co-workers and friends," Globe editor Martin Baron wrote in a memo to the staff yesterday. "Wonderful people who have dedicated themselves so fully to the success of the Globe will no longer be working with us side by side. I know that all of us wish them well."
Other writers familiar to Globe readers who are leaving include restaurant critic Alison Arnett, religion reporter and former Middle East bureau chief Charles A. Radin, Bogota bureau chief Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, and outdoors writer Tony Chamberlain.
"It's very bittersweet," said Chamberlain, 64, whose nearly three decades of covering sailing, skiing, and other sports included Olympic games and the America's Cup. "This is not the typical job that you just want to escape from."
Two staffers from the editorial page also took buyouts, including longtime deputy editorial page editor and columnist Robert L. Turner.
snip
Related story.
URL: http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/business/article/0,1375,VCS_128_5433861,00.html
22 Star employees offered voluntary separation packages
By Allison Bruce, abruce@VenturaCountyStar.com
March 22, 2007
Hit by an advertising revenue decline that is affecting the entire newspaper industry, The Star has turned to cost-cutting measures, including a plan announced Wednesday that would offer severance packages to certain employees if they decide to leave the newspaper.
"I've been in the business 29 years, and I've never seen a slump come on as quickly as this one in advertising dollars," Star Publisher and President Tim Gallagher said Wednesday.
The company already has made some adjustments, such as instituting a hiring freeze and re-examining some vendor contracts.
"We're finding ways to operate more efficiently," Gallagher said.
Twenty-two of the paper's 404 employees were offered voluntary separation plans Wednesday.
The employees are age 55 and older who have worked at least 10 years for E.W. Scripps, parent company of The Star. The package includes a week's pay for every six months an employee has worked for the newspaper, for up to a year's worth of pay, and 18 months of health benefits covered by the company.
snip
Yes a listener to WRKO this morning (via email) noted that
"Eileen MacNamara will no longer be terrorizing us with
her writing--she took a buyout."
How many liberals does it take to tell ONE big lie?
Cut costs by eliminating some monkeys and the product still stays the same.
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