Buyouts offered at Providence Journal for second time this year

A NEW round of buyouts is being offered at the Providence Journal. / PBN FILE PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
A NEW round of buyouts is being offered at the Providence Journal. / PBN FILE PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

PROVIDENCE – A new round of buyouts is being offered at the Providence Journal.
Employees, who learned about the offer on Tuesday, could receive up to 17 weeks of pay, depending on their length of service with the newspaper.
Poynter.org on Wednesday reported that the buyouts are being offered at GateHouse Media papers across the country. GateHouse Media owns the Providence Journal.
The deadline for employees to submit their names for the buyout is Aug. 29; management is expected to make decisions about the number of cuts on Sept. 7, and employees who participate in the buyout will stop working on Sept. 16.
Poynter cited a memo from GateHouse CEO Kirk Davis who wrote to employees that the action reflects efforts to reduce costs across the organization.
Reached Wednesday, John Hill, Providence Newspaper Guild president, said they were told this is a company-wide initiative. He said GateHouse has not revealed a specific number of positions, or a specific number of dollars, that it is targeting. Hill said the Providence employees are meeting with the Journal publisher on Thursday about the offer, which targets both union and non-union personnel.
Hill said that three weeks ago, two Journal employees were laid off, one in editorial and one in advertising.
The Providence Journal – the state’s largest newspaper – has had repeated rounds of layoffs and buyouts since 2008. Buyouts were most recently offered in January, and in 2015.

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