Tampa Bay Times offers buyouts; layoffs may follow
The Tampa Bay Times announced today it will offer buyouts to all full-time employees – approximately 270 people, including 100 newsroom journalists.
In a letter to staffers, Chairman and CEO Conan Gallaty said buyout packages – offered through Aug. 16 – extend up to 12 weeks’ pay. A 20 percent payroll deduction (approximately 60 jobs), he said, is part of an overall cost-cutting measure.
Should the 20 percent goal not be reached, layoffs will follow.
Gallaty said Times executives will take a 10 percent pay cut through the end of the year, with Gallaty himself taking a 20 percent cut.
The rise of search engines and social media advertising have taken a significant portion of revenue from traditional media outlets. According to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, newspaper jobs fell by 77 percent between 2004 and 2024.
In an interview with poynter.org, Gallaty said digital accounts for just 26 percent of revenue at the Times.
The Tampa Bay Times debuted, as the West Hillsborough Times, in 1884. Times journalists have won the Pulitzer Prize on 14 occasions.
“While sharing this news as we mark our 140th anniversary is disappointing, we are committed to ensuring the Times can continue its dedication to robust local journalism,” Gallaty wrote to employees.
“I am confident we will emerge from this challenging period as a more focused and sustainable company.”
SJG
August 10, 2024at10:48 am
Gee, your constant anti-governor, left leaning abomination to fair journalism didn’t inspire enough support for survival? Shocking! Hey, here’s an idea, why not try reporting from the center instead of pandering to your version of group think?
I remember watching the movie ‘The Post’, in that era the Washington Post of all newspapers actually cared about journalistic integrity! Try that for a change.
John Avery
August 7, 2024at5:47 pm
Too sad to even comment. To those of us who love great newspapers, this is a bitter pill to swallow.
Ron Ogden
August 7, 2024at8:06 am
Having watched as, in the name of Nelson Poynter’s leftism, the Times killed off first the Independent, then the Clearwater Sun and finally the Tribune, and having had to swallow the basic, elemental left wing bias in its editorial page, its story selection, is photo editing, and even in its use of written language, which was once upon a time a precious thing but which the Times and others like it reduced to a tool for demagogues, I celebrate today.
Donna Kostreva
August 6, 2024at8:13 pm
Having been a subscriber since St. Petersburg had two daily newspapers and the Tampa Tribune offered another viewpoint, I knew the paper was in trouble when the Poynter Institute grounds began to look shabby. Here we are, hanging on by a thread. Gone are the days when the newsroom upstairs hummed with actual award winning journalists too numerous to name. Now the readers suffer through AP,UPI, Washington’s Post reprints, and locally written drivel of some oddballs in Kenwood creating an adult fantasy yard. The world is spinning out of control and this is what you offer? Whoever has mismanaged our city newspaper into oblivion should be deeply ashamed.
Danny E White
August 6, 2024at3:32 pm
As a lifelong resident who has been around since the days of the St. Petersburg Times,this is very sad news about the news.