THE OWNERS’ DREAM — A NEWSPAPER WITHOUT EMPLOYEES — may be getting closer: Bee offers buyouts to a majority of full-time employees. “The Bee offered voluntary buyouts to the majority of its full-time employees Monday as its advertising slump continues and the newspaper scrambles for additional ways to cut costs. The buyouts came two months after The Bee eliminated 86 jobs as part of an across-the-board layoff ordered by its parent, The McClatchy Co. of Sacramento. A companywide wage freeze was imposed by McClatchy two weeks ago. In July, The Bee unveiled a smaller print format, another way to save money.”

Unlike many in the blogosphere, I take no joy in this, though perhaps a bit more ideological diversity would have helped newspapers weather these economic times. The reader who sent me the link says he quit subscribing over bias already, and seems quite happy to see the paper going down.