Tough Times for the Globe

Yesterday afternoon, the Phoenix’s Adam Reilly reported rumors that the paper of record would announce job cuts today. The bad news has officially come to bear. Globe publisher Steven Ainsley emailed employees to inform them they’d receive voluntary buyout offers next week.

Dan Kennedy has the memo that was sent to Globe and Worcester Telegram & Gazette staffers. In it, Ainsley explains that 80 employees will be cut (60 from the Globe, and 20 from the WT&G) and will get between two and three weeks’ pay for every year worked.

[W]e are excluding Boston.com from the voluntary buyout program. Instead, we will continue to invest in this growing area of the business as it scales up in content delivery, advertising and audience.

Smart move. People look at us with a puzzled expression when we flip through our print edition on the train, but almost everyone reads Boston.com once they get to work.

In yesterday’s post, Reilly does some math and estimates the Globe will lose 16 newsroom positions. In a post earlier today, Kennedy predicts that the focus of the Globe and Boston.com will be much more local than it was in the past due to the cuts. Hopefully that doesn’t mean more features on ice fishing and cheese making.

Aside from the further erosion of the once-glorious print media in Boston, what really sucks is that the powers that be didn’t wait until Friday to pass the bad news along. If any Globe employees want to grab a beer, drinks are on us.