Trib buyouts sought
April 14, 2008 at 11:18 am by Wayne Garcia
Breaking news: Word from the newsroom is that the Tampa Tribune, Newschannel 8 and tbo.com are offering buyouts to employees who voluntarily would opt to retire early. Earlier this year, sources said at the time, news managers were looking to trim $3 million from the budget on South Parker Street. Half of the 1,300 Media General minions here are getting the offer, although the company has not released figures on how many will actually be shown the door, voluntarily or involuntarily.
Employees were greeted by a packet in their mail this morning explaining that the newspaper was looking for voluntary buyouts. The offer: two weeks of pay for every year of service for higher-echelon employees, one week for every year for the rest. And apparently copy editors, photogs and a few other groups are not eligible for the buyout. (Unless, one would guess, there aren’t enough volunteers for the buyout.)
No one has discussed yet the targeted number of staff reductions, but the company’s human resources folks are holding two meetings this afternoon, and editor Janet Coats is expected to address the newsroom at 5 p.m on Friday after being out of town when the initial buyout packets went out.
Workers have two weeks to decide: take the buyout benefits now or, as one person put it to me, await possible future cuts and uncertainty. “Who knows when the grim reaper comes around again,” one Trib employee told me.
Update: Deggans weighs in here. The official word from the News Center is here, with some hilarious comments.
(photo by Josh Hallett)
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April 14th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
So, if an employee doesn’t take the buyout now and gets cut in the future, what happens?
April 14th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Therein lies the uncertainty. There is no guarantee of what a severance package would look like in the future, and that leaves Trib employees guessing at their best strategy
April 14th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Florida Communications Group president John Schueler expects to spend two weeks analyzing the requests and their possible impact before informing employees whether they will accept the requests.
That sounds pretty fishy to me. You can request to be part of the voluntary buyout, but then they have the option to evaluate and deny it? What kind of bait and switch awaits those suckers, I mean, volunteers.
April 14th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
To sweeten the deal, Trib corporate will offer annual passes to the Newseum in Washington DC.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Zhombre: This is Media General we’re talking about.
They will offer annual passes to the Newseum in Washington, D.C., AT A DISCOUNT.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
OK, two weeks has passed. What os the latest? Howe many to get axed and when?
With the hedgefund sating 1/3 of the Mdia General board last week what will happen? Sale, liquidation, or cut back to the bone?
April 28th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
blog post forthcoming on the election of the three dissidents and the (likely) small impact on the company. Marshall Morton wrote a memo to all that said the trio are pond scum to him (I’m paraphrasing here) who will have to prove their worth i.e. kiss a lot of ass before they will be allowed to sit at the big boys’ table.
Nothing from 202 S Parker yet on how many buyouts will be accepted