The Denver Post is offering buyouts to reduce newsroom staff by 20 employees in the next 45 days, editor Gregory Moore said Thursday.
Denver Post airline reporter Laura Keeney tweeted Thursday that there are about 165 people in the newsroom. That means the cuts would amount to a 12 percent reduction in newsroom staff.
A 2007 Post story said the newsroom then had about 268 employees.
Departments outside of the newsroom will make their own reductions as well, Keeney tweeted. The paper is looking to reduce costs by $1.5 million.
Denver Post looking to buyout: 8 reporters, 2 photogs, 1 editorial asst, 2 editors, 3 designers, 1 critic, 2 assistant editors and an artist
Moore told newsroom employees that they need to do "punchier and shorter stories" and eliminate doing "mundane stuff, while maintaining the ability to do ambitious and important journalism."
"That's what we do now," he told CPR News. "We can always do it better."
A 20-year staffer who takes the buyout will receive nearly a year's worth of pay and a lump sum to cover health care costs, according to editor Greg Moore. Buyouts in the industry are often aimed at more experienced -- and expensive -- staff. Keeney noted the impending loss:
The problem with losing senior staff is the heaps of valuable institutional knowledge that leaves along with them. #DenverPost
Just last month, the Post's parent company Digital First Media announced it was taking itself -- and its newspapers -- off the auction block. The company's CEO touted its "real, demonstrable momentum."
