Monday was decision day for the 200 or so employees of the News & Observer who recently were offered buyouts. They were asked to inform management of their choice — take a buyout, or gamble that their jobs would survive — by 3 p.m.
But on Monday morning, the staff arrived at work to a much different circumstance. It seems that in the two weeks since the buyouts were announced, the financial condition of McClatchy Newspapers, the N&O’s parent company, has worsened to the point that the number of people the N&O has been ordered to cut has risen dramatically.
When the staff cuts were first announced, editor John Drescher predicted that only three to five jobs would be lost from the newsroom. However, news staffers now report that the number of positions to be cut may be somewhere between 15 and 20. If all N&O departments are reducing their staffs to the same proportionate degree, that means the paper’s 900-person workforce will shrink by about ten percent.
McClatchy's credit rating was cut a few weeks ago, and McClatchy executives are scrambling to deal with the financial implosion at the Seattle Times, where McClatchy's share has shrunk from $102 million to just $12 million. More from Gearino:
As one N&O staffer told me yesterday, “McClatchy is working for its bankers now.”
Howard "Champagne wishes and caviar dreams" Weaver was not available for comment.
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