Toronto Star starts restructuring, offers buyouts

Canada's largest circulation daily has launched what its publisher said will likely be the biggest restructuring in the newspaper's history by offering voluntary buyouts to employees in all divisions of the company.

Toronto Star Publisher John Cruickshank said in a memo to employees Tuesday that the broad reworking of the company will affect every job in every corner of the organization and could include layoffs.

He said the paper is also exploring the possibility of contracting out some work in both copy editing and pagination.

The Star's union said the Star has told them it plans to contract out as many as 100 union editing jobs. The newspaper has 390 employees in the editorial department.

"We must find the best way to operate our business at the lowest possible cost, including contracting out non core functions where there is a sound business case to do so," he wrote in the memo. "This will involve what is likely to be the biggest restructuring of the Star's workforce in its history."

The newspaper, which celebrated its 117th birthday on Tuesday, has been grappling with industry-wide problems that have worsened with the weaker economy.