Florida Communications Group president John Schueler confirmed to me moments ago that the company will offer buyouts to half its 1,326 employees, including people who work at WFLA-Ch. 8, TBO.com, The Tampa Tribune Spanish-language CENTRO, Hernando Today, Sunbelt Newspapers and a host of other smaller daily and weekly newspapers.
Schueler said it was an alignment of the Media General-owned company that would save money and meld responsibilities of staffers across their various media platforms in the same way their “convergence” efforts share news material. For example, the president and publisher of the Tampa Tribune, Denise Palmer, is now responsible for content across all the FCG platforms. The president and general manager of WFLA, Mike Pumo, is now responsible for revenues across all platforms, and their operations at all platforms will also be centralized under a single vice president.
Schueler said staffers can request to be part of the buyout, becoming eligible for either one week of salary per year of service up to 26 weeks or 2 weeks per year up to 39 weeks, depending on their position within the company. He expects to spend two weeks analyzing the requests and their possible impact before informing employees whether they will accept the requests.
Filed under: Business | Tagged: Business, Journalism, layoffs, Mass Media, media general, St. Petersburg Times, tampa tribune, WFLA-Ch. 8
