Oregonian up next

Mine is still up around 25 percent but we're getting crunched (no buyouts or layoffs yet, thank God).

 

Two years plus two years of medical? Cripes!

To me, it would be nearly impossible to turn that down. If you stayed, it would feel like working for free for the next two years, with no assurance you'd still be around till then (or after that) -- hell, no assurance you'll even be alive two years out!

Two-plus-two trumps about everything else we've heard of, right? And the incredible part is, you don't have to be a 30-year vet or on the brink of retirement to get the max. If you're approved, you can parlay 10 years of service into 104 weeks of severance.

I think the Oregonian has just made it tougher for all other papers to buy out their troops, because other deals are going to look relatively chintzy.

 

I'm trying to figure how this pencils out. Many of the vets at the Oregonian are making in the 75-80K range. With medical, it's going to cost between $150-200K to buy out each employee. For 100, that's roughly $17-20 million.

Somebody is going without a bonus this year, that's for sure.

 

The interesting thing is, it's not as good as The O's buyout offer from last year.

 

I would think people will be stampeding HR to sign up for this. Especially underappreciated copy editors with lousy hours. (Are they eligible?)

 

Only the employees who have been there 10+ years are eligible for the buyout.
If they're like other Newhouse papers, where the vast majority of the newsroom stays around forever, there will be a long line at HR

 

Fixed

Advance/Newhouse is probably getting tired of the shell game of shifting profits from one enterprise to cover losses at another. Don't know how well their websites are doing as the Advance philosophy is 'portal sites' instead of name-brand sites (eg: nj.com instead of StarLedger.com; nj.com instead of TrentonTimes.com; Cleveland.com instead clevelandplaindealer.com, etc.)

 

Yeah, why the hell do places do that? I never got it. Another joint like that, the Chicago Tribune, seemed to have its sports content on some sight entirely separate from the rest of the newspaper's content. I thought that really was dumb. Never made a clear association between the provider and the content. Uh ... take that, Zell!

 

More fixed.

 

can you offer an explanation?

 

Sort of. It was only a better offer from the benefits standpoint, but the offer was limited to a select group of employees. You had to meet a rule of 90 (or a number right around there), which was your age plus years of service. For example, age 55 and 35 years at the company. The benefit part was extraordinary...they offered to pay medical until you reach medicare, which was huge for anyone age 60 or under. But I don't believe the compensation was as generous...a year, I believe.

Still, the Oregonian's buyout trumps most newspapers.

 

thank you for taking the time.