Syracuse Paper's Buyout Offer Could Trim Newsroom 10%

By: Joe Strupp The Post-Standard of Syracuse, N.Y. is offering newsroom employees a buyout package that could give some longtime workers two years of pay, while possibly reducing the staff by 10%, Publisher Stephen A. Rogers told E&P.

"We don't know how many jobs we're looking to cut," said Rogers, who has run the non-union paper since 1980. "Ten percent, maybe. I don't know. We have never done anything like this."

The buyout offer was presented to the paper's 204 editorial workers on Tuesday, offering the best deal to 20-year-veterans who are 50 years of age or older. The paper has more than 500 employees overall.

Rogers said eligible workers would receive two years' salary, and have 10 years added to their age for pension calculations. Fifty-year-olds with less than 20 years of service could receive three weeks of pay for each year at the paper and have five years added to their age for pension purposes.

"We have a right to cap it at whatever we feel," Rogers said about the number of people who take the buyout, noting that at least 71 newsroom personnel are eligible. "It has become clear we could no longer afford this staff."

Rogers, whose paper is owned by Advance Publications, said the newsroom had operated with an excess staff for the past 10 years, since it merged with the former Syracuse Herald Journal. "As a result, we had lots of reporters and editors doing duplicate jobs," he said of the post-merger situation. "For several years, the economy here was strong enough to support a larger newsroom staff than we can today."

Rogers added that the cost of everything from health benefits to newsprint has impacted the bottom line. "We are not losing money," he said. "But we are feeling the same revenue pinch that newspapers across the country are feeling." The paper's daily circulation dipped slightly according to the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations FAS-FAX report, dropping to 114,179 from 117,226 during the six-month period ending Sept. 30, 2006.

Eligible employees will have until Jan. 15, 2007 to decide if they want to take the offer, Rogers said. He said jobs would begin to be cut starting Feb. 1.