Fresh Loaf

This morning’s announcement that the AJC is offering a third round of buyouts came as something of a relief to many among the paper’s beleaguered editorial staff. There’s only so long you can show up for work not knowing if you’re going to be canned that day before you start feeling a little stressed.

Senior writers and editors who were already convinced there was a pink sheet with their name on it are, we’re told, generally pleased to find out they’ve got another chance to get out with a decent severance package. In fact, some employees have already handed in their completed buyout applications and are waiting to be told when is their last day on the job.

The deal on the table is the same as last time: two week’s pay for every year of employment. But the number of bodies to be cleared out is higher than past downsizings. The stated goal is to cut the editorial payroll – currently 323 positions – by about 90. But we’re told that’s an estimate based on the total salary dollars the honchos are looking to save. That figure hasn’t been released.

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Word is going around that something big will go down at the AJC next week – and nobody expects it to be a good something.

Cox honchos have spent recent weeks prepping the staff to brace for more cost-cutting at the paper. In late June, following a brutal round of layoffs at the Cox-owned Palm Beach Post in which a third(!) of the news staff was let go, AJC Publisher John Mellott issued a memo that offered little comfort:

“The economic factors affecting our business have worsened. The recession, the housing market downturn, as well as soaring newsprint and fuel costs have increased the urgency to reduce expenses. We will do so aggressively and in ways that make most sense for our market, our readers and our advertisers.”

It looks like the shit hits the fan next week. Managers have asked vacationing employees to provide contact information so they can be notified at the same time as the drudges in the newsroom. Everyone is expecting a bombshell to drop next week, but no one we spoke to seems to know whether it’ll be a SCUD missile, a neutron bomb or a Doomsday Machine.

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