NEW YORK, NY (April 15, 2008) – On Tuesday The New York Times told employees that as of today not enough people have come forward to volunteer for buyouts, and so now – for the first time – the newspaper will face the possibility of having to cut newsroom jobs through layoffs.
An internal memo from Times assistant managing editor Bill Schmidt, as reported in The New York Observer, said, "While layoffs have become all too common across out industry, this is the first time the newsroom as a whole has confronted that blunt reality, and we approach it with a heavy heart."
Yesterday in Central Florida, a full half of the 1,326 employees at The Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV Channel 8, and at other news properties owned by the Media General subsidiary Florida Communications Group, learned that they are being offered buyouts. FCG has called the buyout offer the "Voluntary Reduction in Force Program." FCG president John Schueler said that the employees who remain afterwards will be expected to "meld" their responsibilities across all the company's various platforms as part of the company's "convergence."
And reporting on itself in California today, The Modesto Bee says that it has offered voluntary buyouts to more than 100 of its 455 employees on Monday. The newspaper citing "fundamental changes in the news industry" as the reason it needed to downsize quickly. Management said that not all who apply for the buyouts will be approved, and only a "very small" number of the newsroom's 90-plus employees will be impacted with a "minimal impact" on their readers.
Back in Manhattan, The New York Times had offered both Guild and excluded employees the chance to volunteer for buyouts about six weeks ago. Times executive editor Bill Keller said the newsroom needed to reduce its head count by about 100 jobs. The chance to volunteer for a buyout ends next week, on Monday April 21 for excluded staff members and on Tuesday April 22 for Guild employees.
If less than 100 Times employees come forward, Schmidt said in his memo, then they will regrettably "be forced to resort to some limited number of layoffs within the core newsroom."
"Because the voluntary buyout window is still open for a few more days, and because we know many of you might still be contemplating what to do, we urge you to give the offer serious consideration, if you believe there is some financial advantage in it for you and your family," Schmidt wrote.
The news of newsroom layoffs has spread across the country this month as advertising revenues continue to decline and the economy in general has weakened.
In early April, The Seattle Times announced that some 200 jobs there will be eliminated through layoffs, hiring freezes, and potentially through "voluntary separation offers." Unionized workers there will have to be given four weeks notice, so layoffs would likely start in early May.
Newspapers do not hold a monopoly on the crisis. Layoffs at CBS owned and operated affiliates spread like wildfire at the end of March and into early April, hitting newsroom veterans and on-air talent as well. Most CBS O&O's lost five to ten employees each, except at some larger stations where as many as 20 jobs were cut.
Ironically, in the same time period that CBS's KCNC-TV CBS4 in Denver laid off several award-winning and veteran employees, the station heavily promoted on the air and on their Web site a new feature called "YouReport," and encouraged citizens to shoot their own news and provide it to the station for broadcast.
So far, KCNC-TV viewers have provided "YouReport" journalism along the lines of "Volkswagon [sic] van catches on fire" and "Huge Snowman Built in Superior." There's also a story about an elk with new antlers.
