Union rep says Post-Gazette seeking buyouts in bid to shrink newsroom by 20%, slash 24 positions

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is offering a buyout option in an effort to shrink its newsroom by about 20%, or at least two dozen employees, a union official said Friday.

In exchange for leaving their jobs, full-time employees will receive a week’s pay for every year of service, up to 16 years — for a maximum of four months, according to Michael Fuoco, president of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, which represents 114 full-time employees. Those who accept the severance package also will keep their health insurance coverage for three months.

Part-time employees and freelance contributors are not eligible.

The tentative deadline to accept a buyout package is July 3.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” Fuoco said. “I don’t know if they’re going to get 24 (buyouts) or two.”

Officials with Block Communications Inc., the Toledo, Ohio-based company that owns the Post-Gazette, could not be reached. Jodi Miehls, Block’s chief financial officer, and Keith Wilkowski, vice president of legal and government affairs for Block, did not return a request for comment late Friday.

Tracey DeAngelo, general manager of the Post-Gazette, and Keith Burris, executive editor, were not immediately available for comment.

According to Fuoco, the goal is to get employees to take the buyouts from nearly every department, including local news, business, digital, editorial and the copy desk.

The plan calls for eliminating as many as five positions each from the sports and features departments, along with four photographers.

“We will be sad to see anyone go, but we hope that if they do, they leave voluntarily,” Fuoco said.

Should the company decide to proceed with layoffs, management must give the Guild at least 30 days’ notice. That means the earliest that a round of layoffs could happen would be August, Fuoco said.

Fuoco said the buyout proposal — expected to be presented formally to all eligible employees next week — is better than an initial offer that management had discussed in recent weeks.

Fuoco argued against an earlier proposal that capped severance pay at 12 years of service and included just two months of health benefits.

“I’m glad they increased it,” Fuoco said. “We wanted more. I wish they would have increased it significantly more.”

He pointed out that if the newspaper were to shut down, a severance package plan in place would provide two weeks for every year of service up to 26 years — up to a full year’s pay.

The company alerted Fuoco and other union representatives to the updated buyout plan to avoid layoffs a couple weeks ago.

“They are required to consult with us, not to get our approval,” Fuoco said.

Fuoco shared the latest information with members, but noted the final package could change.

Managers won’t be making the official announcement until Monday. Webinars will be provided for employees to ask questions, Fuoco said.

Prior to revenue challenges during the pandemic-spurred shutdown, tension had been mounting among the Post-Gazette’s newsroom employees.

The Guild has accused Block of unfair labor practices and a hostile work environment, and slammed the decision to reduce the newspaper’s 234-year-old print publication from seven to three days a week.

In 2017, the Post-Gazette stopped home delivery to some customers, including those in Westmoreland County, to reduce costs.

Newsroom employees have not had a raise in 14 years, Fuoco said.

The news organization’s roots date to the late 1700s, when The Pittsburgh Gazette became the first daily newspaper published west of the Allegheny Mountains.

The Block family acquired the Post-Gazette in 1927.