More buyouts in Newark

The hits just keep on coming...

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/star-ledger-back-for-more-buyouts/?src=twt&twt=nytmedia

Looking for 50 to take voluntary buyouts.

 

From the article:

So this year's buyout offer is half of what last year's was. According to the blog, this year they're capping it at 26 weeks pay and medical coverage.
Last year they were offering a year's pay and 1 year medical coverage.
How much lower can they go?

 

Well, they could probably just throw you out the door and say thanks.

Er, maybe not thanks. Probably just "see ya."

 

How many more people can this paper lose before it ceases to be relevant?

 

I always find it interesting when papers offer a worse buyout offer than they did just a year ago.

 

What sense would it make to offer a better one?

 

To increase the chances of someone taking it maybe

 

If they truly don't have the funds to pay a better severance than this, then what do you expect them to do? You think any bank would loan them the money at this point to take care of stuff like that? Ha!

 

And if not enough people take it:

We sincerely hope that we meet our staffing goals through this voluntary buyout offer. If we do not, we will need to resort to other ways of reducing our employee costs, which could include involuntary layoffs.

 

Remember when people were touting Newhouse as the best chain, one that never resorted to shit like this? Yeah. Those were good times.

I know we've got at least one very valued SportsJournalists.commer on that sinking ship, here's hoping he's OK.

 

So for the "no economic-driven layoffs, ever" pledge.

Once the pledge went down, so did any future buyout offers, since they could always resort to layoff and minimal severance.

Six months and health care, at this point, isn't bad considering they probably don't have to do even that much.

Of course, it still sucks and is another nail in the bidness' coffin.

 

3 1/2 months from now, that pledge becomes non-existent and they can cut as they please.
So half a buyout now is better than none on Feb. 6.