NORFOLK
Days after reporting a losing third quarter and as it entertains bids to buy its newspapers, Tribune Publishing is planning to offer buyouts to full-time non-unionized workers who have been with the company for at least 10 years.
The company, which owns The Virginian-Pilot and the Daily Press, is offering an “enhanced” package of incentives that includes longer severance pay and the opportunity to continue with medical, dental and vision benefits during the severance period.
The company won’t be offering buyouts to the New York Daily News newsroom, where half the staff was cut in July. It also won’t be offering buyouts to advertising and sales employees and manufacturing and production employees.
Tribune Publishing, which had been called Tronc until recently, owned the Daily Press for years before buying The Virginian-Pilot in May for $34 million. It has since combined some operations and begun extensive sharing of content. The Pilot had been family-owned for more than 150 years before the sale.
The letter from human resources sent to managers at The Virginian-Pilot indicated that unionized workers are expected to get an “equivalent offer” to take the buyout. That offer would come by Nov. 16. Tribune Publishing said it wants applications for buyouts returned by Nov. 26. Decisions will be made the next day on which buyouts will be accepted, and the employees’ last day would be Nov. 30.
The company owns several newspapers across the country, including The Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel and the Baltimore Sun.
During its third-quarter conference call, the company said it recorded a net loss of $4.2 million in the three months ending Sept. 30, all of it attributable to newsprint tariff costs that have since been rescinded and costs following the June 28 fatal shooting of five members of the company’s The Capital newsroom in Annapolis.
“Based on the ongoing trends in our industry, we need to make some difficult decisions to align our costs with revenue trends,” Tribune’s human resources director noted in the memo.
Kimberly Pierceall, 757-446-2588, kimberly.pierceall@pilotonline.com
