Star Tribune offering buyouts to trim newsroom

The Star Tribune is offering buyouts to cut about 30 newsroom positions, but there are no buyouts or layoffs planned among reporters.

A company memo said the plan will likely result in a number of layoffs in other areas of the newsroom. The memo said the heart of the plan is to have fewer layers of editing of all content, but there were no plans to shrink the newspaper's coverage.

Dave Chanen from the paper's Newspaper Guild said up to 35 cuts will come from the copy editing desk, the photo department and elsewhere in the newsroom. The cuts come after a long, difficult period for employees during the paper's recent bankruptcy, he said.

"This occurred despite painful sacrifices made by guild members totaling more than 10 million dollars in two concessionary agreements over the past 18 months," Chanen said.

Workers have until Jan. 20 to accept a buyout. The Star Tribune emerged from bankruptcy last fall and has yet to name a permanent publisher. Calls requesting comment from the Star Tribune were not immediately returned.