The Modesto Bee offers buyouts to its full-time employees

About 200 weighing offers

By EVE HIGHTOWER
ehightower@modbee.com

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The Modesto Bee offered buyouts Monday to all its full-time employees. The announcement comes four days after The McClatchy Company, which owns The Bee and 29 other daily newspapers, announced a companywide one-year wage freeze.

"Unfortunately, the economy continues to worsen, and we must reduce expenses further," Publisher Margaret Randazzo said in an e-mail to employees.

This is the second buyout The Bee has offered employees this year.

The first buyout, announced in April, was available to about 100 employees and 11 took it. Reporters and ad salespeople were excluded. In June, 15 employees were laid off from The Modesto Bee's advertising, circulation and operations divisions as part of McClatchy's decision to reduce its overall work force by 10 percent.

The latest buyout offer was extended to about 200 full-time staff, Randazzo said in an interview Monday.

These actions follow last month's announcement that The Bee will cease printing in Modesto. While reporters, editors, advertising staff and others will continue working in Modesto, the paper will be printed on presses at The Sacramento Bee and trucked to Modesto for distribution starting Sept. 29.

That change will cost 33 full-time employees and 127 part-time employees their jobs. Though they will remain at work until Sept. 28, those employees are not eligible for the buyout offered Monday.

The latest buyout package includes two weeks of pay for every 12 months of continuous service with The Modesto Bee. Employees whose applications are accepted will receive at least 10 weeks of pay and a maximum of 40 weeks.

Those who take the buyout are eligible to continue company-subsidized health coverage through December. After that, they can continue the coverage at their own cost.

Employees have until Aug. 29 to apply for the buyout. If chosen, they'll work through Sept. 5.

In evaluating applications, Randazzo said she would ensure that no one area of The Bee is unfairly affected. It's unknown whether there are more layoffs ahead at The Bee. Randazzo said she will know that after reviewing buyout applications. There are neither limits nor quotas on the buyouts.

Mark Vasché, The Bee's editor and senior vice president, said the newsroom would work to minimize the impact on readers.

"We remain fully committed to our mission of public service journalism," he said. "As we already have, we'll continue to adjust to changing economic and audience conditions in order to provide news and information that is local, relevant, timely and useful."

Randazzo said the tough economic times have forced The Bee to accelerate already planned changes.

"Many of our readers and advertisers are shifting to online and want more niche publications, like home and wedding magazines," she said.

So, The Bee is positioning itself as an integrated multimedia company, offering a portfolio of information products in print and online, as opposed to focusing solely on the daily newspaper. "The pronounced economic downturn is just accelerating changes we need to make," Randazzo said.

Bee staff writer Eve Hightower can be reached at ehightower@modbee.com or 578-2382.