Entire Post newsroom offered buyouts

The entire National Post newsroom
has been offered buyouts – and they have until Friday to accept,
sources at the National Post
confirm. Sources also say that there is no guarantee any employee applying for a buyout will receive one. The National Post denied comment.

The news follows a series of buyout offers and layoffs at other Postmedia papers last week. The Globe and Mail reports 20 layoffs at the Edmonton Journal and 20 at the Calgary Herald.

Update:

The Torontoist quotes an unnamed National Post source as saying the buyout offers are “just a way of trimming the fat,” our source explained; the buyout
offers are “designed for people who don’t want to stay anyway.””

A Toronto Life blog post says: “We have to note that just because people have been offered buyouts doesn’t mean that the Post‘s newsroom is dead or dying. The CBC offered a really broad buyout package to its staff last year and then winnowed down the number it would actually pay out.”

The Globe and Mail reports that the Post is “going through the same process the other 10 major newspapers
are doing,” according to Postmedia chief executive officer Paul Godfrey.

Postmedia spokesperson Phyllise Gelfand responded to JSource:

“What I can tell you is that operations across our organization are
reviewing budgets and business strategy for the new fiscal year and voluntary buyout programs are one tool that publishers can use. National Post management has developed a voluntary buyout program to deliver on its strategy for F11.”