Raleigh News and Observer offers buyouts to 204 of 900 employees

It's hardly the beginning. They've already offered buyouts in: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/4lkaru">Kansas City</a>, <a href="http://tinyurl.com/3sz8f8">Modesto</a>, <a href="http://tinyurl.com/4v4mc7">Miami</a>, and <a href="http://tinyurl.com/4eevxh">Sacramento.</a>

I'm more than a little concerned the buyouts will soon turn to layoffs.

 

The downturn has affected McClatchy as well. Part of it probably is the general trend. I suspect most of it was overpaying for some former Knight-Ridder papers.

 

Yeah, I know. Sorry if I implied otherwise. What I meant was, the buyouts are spreading across the company like wildfire, and I fear they will soon be replaced by a rash of layoffs. The layoffs have been pretty sporadic ... so far.

 

Somebody said "Paycuts."

We don't hear much about that, so I'm wondering how prevalent paycuts are becoming in this business. Not that there is much to cut in many of our cases, but still... I believe the Toledo journalists took a cut in pay in their recent contract and, um, didn't the Daily Herald outside Chicago have a pay cut too.

But you don't hear about these as often as you hear about buyouts and layoffs. I might be willing to take a pay cut if it kept a staff safe from layoffs, especially since management probably wouldn't lay off the most deserving (to go). Man, this business is getting like a lifeboat situation, where you have to decide whether to all divvy up one ham sandwich and one bottle of water or to look away and hope like hell that a few of the others die, making your ration just a little bigger.

 

We had pay cuts and raise freezes at a previous stop. I don't see that being a 2008 replacement for voluntary (wink, wink) buyouts.

 

To clarify, I was the Charlotte writer for the News & Observer. I was not "ousted." When my position was eliminated in a budget cut in 2001, I was offered the Duke beat. I declined and opted to go freelance instead. I have been writing primarily for the NY Times since 2002.

Best of luck to my friends in Raleigh. I hope the cuts aren't too deep.

 

Word from inside the Triangle is that the N&O is looking for 3-5 newsroom employees to take the buyout. Those offered were at the editor and asst. editor level, so no rank-and-file reporters, copy editors, etc., in sports (or news, features or business, for that matter).

 

What's the circulation for Raleigh these days?

 

I meant nothing in a negative conotation, Viv. Thanks for the clarification.

Here's to hoping the cuts, if the company must, are minimal.

----

Last I saw, the N&O's circulation was at 170,000. That was about a year ago, though. I've already been dead wrong once ... anyone got a more recent head count?

 

This is as of 9/30/07, via the ABC site:
M (M-F) 164,300
SAT M 171,905
SUN 211,288

 

And while not all the McClatchy papers have had buyouts yet, I'm pretty sure just about all of them underwent extended hiring freezes. Some lasted only a few weeks. Others went on for months.
For now, I'd guess the smaller McClatchy papers are safer than the bigger ones, but that's not rocket science. I'm pretty sure Myrtle Beach (55k circ) had Knight-Ridder's highest profit (by percentage) for like five of six of the past 7 years.

 

No worries. I just wanted to correct it. By the way, Sam Mills was one of the nicest gentlemen I ever met.