The Modesto Bee offered buyouts Monday to all its full-time employees. The announcement comes four days after The McClatchy Company, which owns The Bee and 29 other daily newspapers, announced a companywide one-year wage freeze.
"Unfortunately, the economy continues to worsen, and we must reduce expenses further," Publisher Margaret Randazzo said in an e-mail to employees.
This is the second buyout The Bee has offered employees this year.
The first buyout, announced in April, was available to about 100 employees and 11 took it. Reporters and ad salespeople were excluded. In June, 15 employees were laid off from The Modesto Bee's advertising, circulation and operations divisions as part of McClatchy's decision to reduce its overall work force by 10 percent.
The latest buyout offer was extended to about 200 full-time staff, Randazzo said in an interview Monday.
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The latest buyout package includes two weeks of pay for every 12 months of continuous service with The Modesto Bee. Employees whose applications are accepted will receive at least 10 weeks of pay and a maximum of 40 weeks.
Those who take the buyout are eligible to continue company-subsidized health coverage through December. After that, they can continue the coverage at their own cost.
Employees have until Aug. 29 to apply for the buyout. If chosen, they'll work through Sept. 5.
In evaluating applications, Randazzo said she would ensure that no one area of The Bee is unfairly affected. It's unknown whether there are more layoffs ahead at The Bee. Randazzo said she will know that after reviewing buyout applications. There are neither limits nor quotas on the buyouts.
Mark Vasché, The Bee's editor and senior vice president, said the newsroom would work to minimize the impact on readers.
"We remain fully committed to our mission of public service journalism," he said. "As we already have, we'll continue to adjust to changing economic and audience conditions in order to provide news and information that is local, relevant, timely and useful."
Randazzo said the tough economic times have forced The Bee to accelerate already planned changes.
I noted earlier this is the 4th round of job cuts at Modesto this year.
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7 comments:
I AM ONE OF THOSE EMPLOYEES WHO IS LOSING HIS JOB BECAUSE OF POOR MANAGEMENT,THOSE WHO SIT UP IN CORPORATE AND RACK IN THOSE MILLIONS OF BONUSES COULD CARE LESS ABOUT THE WORKERS EFFECTED.THIS PLANT SHOULD NOT SHUTDOWN IT PUTS OUT A VERY GOOD NEWSPAPER WE HAVE RECEIVED MANY AWARDS FOR THIS, I HOPE THE READERS ENJOY A DIRTY PRINT COPY.
Anonymous - very sorry to hear. I wish you the best as you head elsewhere.
The sad thing is The Modesto Bee has been hit 4 times now this year. Wow the Bee went from Being one of the only newspapers in the nation to profit a few years ago giving there employees Bonus's to being the worst paper to work for giving there employees Walking papers. Why cant they just say there going to eventually close this building down and sale it. because the way things look we are looking that way. NO Press why keep it. IM sure thats been in there minds already this is prime real estate here. HMMM a whole city block downtown.
It amazes me how so few making such bad decisions could wreck so many lives. The slow motion train wreck continues. Count me as one of those getting the ax also. It isn't the newspapers that are experiencing reduced readership 'cause they aren't...Look at what the CEO has done AND how much he is getting paid to do it. HEY GARY...It's BUY LOW AND SELL HIGH...NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND, EVEN MY 10 YEAR OLD KNOWS THAT!!! Fire the bum! DO THE STOCK HOLDERS HAVE EVEN ONE OUNCE OF COMPASSION FOR THOSE BEING AFFECTED. Well thanks for the severance anyway. Maybe the Bee should do an article on the production workers being laid off and the emotions they are going through and their plans for the future, should make for interesting reading. Excuse me while I go throw up from all the stress.
A few questions, What are they gonna do with the fairly new inserter, the older inserter, the Press and all the plate making stuff? Then there's the building AND parking lot, prime downtown real estate. The building takes up an entire city block and the parking lot is another half block (or more). With the small support staff they are managing to keep on board they could just rent out a store front ... Hey they could hire temps, they already outsource the ads to India, why not outsource everything!
Wow this MJC teacher at the end of this news clip said it all. Hopefuly the stock holders watch this.
http://www.kcra.com/video/17238341/index.html
We feel for you but the Modesto buy out is much better than all the other papers. The KC Star offered another buy out today 26 weeks the MAX. Modesto is 40 weeks.
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