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Memo: Ottawa Citizen offering buyouts; five laid off at Postmedia’s parliamentary bureau

Postmedia Network is laying off five members of the Parliament Hill bureau. Four reporters, along with manager Christina Spencer, will be joining the Ottawa Citizen. Today the Citizen is announcing a new Voluntary Buy-Out offering for the newsroom. You will find details of the offering in the attached document, as well as posted on a…

Postmedia Network is laying off five members of the Parliament Hill bureau. Four reporters, along with manager Christina Spencer, will be joining the Ottawa Citizen.

Today the Citizen is announcing a new Voluntary Buy-Out offering for the newsroom. You will find details of the offering in the attached document, as well as posted on a board outside the HR office.

Here, however, are some quick facts:
-The VBO is open to everyone in the newsroom.
-The calculation is based on three weeks of salary per year of service to a maximum of 78 weeks; total not to exceed $150,000; salary continuance.

Additionally, Postmedia is laying off five members of the Parliament Hill bureau. Four reporters, along with manager Christina Spencer, will be joining the Citizen. Combined with our existing Hill reporters, this will create a strong political desk based out of the Citizen.

These and other developments will be discussed at more length at tomorrow's Town Hall. But if anyone has any pressing questions or concerns, I'm available.

Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.