Modesto Bee, Florida Communications Group offer buyouts

The Modesto Bee offered voluntary buyouts this week to more than 100 employees, citing fundamental changes in the news industry.
Mark Vasché, editor and senior vice president of The Bee, said the buyouts will affect a "very small" number of the newsroom's 90-plus employees and thus should have a minimal impact on readers.
About one-quarter of The Bee's 455 employees were offered buyout packages. The packages include up to 26 weeks of pay depending on tenure, and medical coverage.
"We are managing through a challenging business environment and changing business model," President and Publisher Margaret Randazzo said.
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Florida Communications Group also offered voluntary buyouts Monday to half the employees at the Tampa Tribune, WFLA-Ch. 8, TBO.com and several other news outlets in the Tampa Bay area.
The company, a subsidiary of Richmond, Va.-based Media General, opened the offer to about half its 1,326 employees, with some staffers qualifying for up to 39 weeks of severance pay, according to FCG president John Schueler.
The goal, Schueler said, is to reduce staff costs while melding the responsibilities of staff across their different media types, or platforms, in the same way their "convergence" efforts unite newsgathering efforts across television, print and online media.
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