About one dozen Milwaukee Journal Sentinel news department employees agreed to leave the publication under a buyout proposal — nearly 10 percent of the Journal Sentinel’s newsroom staff — in advance of a merger with E.W. Scripps Co. newspapers.
Executives with owner Journal Communications Inc. did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Journal Sentinel recently announced it was seeking employee volunteers for a buyout as Journal Communications looks to reduce expenses.
The president of the newsroom employees union said he believes the job cuts are directly related to the pending merger of the Journal Sentinel with 13 Scripps newspapers under the new name Journal Media Group.
“You can’t tell me that that’s a coincidence,” Journal Sentinel sports reporter Tom Silverstein said of the timing of the buyout. “You have to be naive to think this is not about that.”
To back up his position, Silverstein referred to layoffs at E.W. Scripps-owned the Memphis Commercial Appeal. A letter on the buyout from Journal Publishing president Betsy Brenner reached employees about one week after the Commercial Appeal laid off 17 employees in September.
The Facebook page of the Commercial Appeal’s newsroom union quoted newspaper executives as citing “the way business has been going” as the reason for the layoffs.
Silverstein, who covers the Green Bay Packers, said Journal executives have told employees the buyouts in Milwaukee are “strictly a financial decision,” but he’s not buying it.
“It’s very disappointing for us and for people who care what the publication is going to be in terms of coverage,” he said.
The newsroom union is waiting to hear whether any layoffs are forthcoming beyond the buyouts. The buyout offer went to employees throughout the Journal Publishing group.
Employees whose positions are eliminated will receive two weeks of severance pay for every year of service capped at 40 weeks, plus medical coverage through COBRA for three months.
Journal Communications chairman and CEO Steve Smith said in an Oct. 9 memo to the company's employees that details about changes in personnel will be announced as management makes those decisions.
“We expect that most of the positions that will be eliminated, or the teams that will need fewer employees, will be corporate functions,” Smith said. “As I’ve noted before, we are very focused on minimizing the number of people who will be affected by the transaction. Please be assured that it is our goal to let any impacted individuals know their options well in advance of closing so that they will have plenty of time to make related personal and professional decisions.”
The first priority for the newly created Journal Media Group newspaper unit in Milwaukee will be improving profit margins and cash flow, Tim Stautberg, who will become the company’s president and CEO, said in remarks in July. Stautberg is senior vice president of newspapers for Scripps.
Scripps shareholders will own 59 percent of the stock in Journal Media Group and Journal Communications shareholders will get 41 percent. Smith will be the company’s non-employee board chairman.
The Journal Communications-Scripps transaction is expected to close in 2015.