Alberto Ibarguen

"There was a point at which we looked at the millions of dollars we were spending on training the best journalists at the best universities for what looked like jobs that were no longer going to exist," says Alberto Ibarguen, the foundation's president and a former publisher of The Miami Herald. The foundation, he adds, decided it needed to "step back and look at industry" as a whole.

Now the foundation, which last year had $2.6 billion in assets and spent more than $122 million, is intent on helping communities continue to get the kind of impartial local and regional news it believes is necessary to maintaining quality civic life.

Besides its grants to ventures such as MinnPost, the foundation has begun offering $5 million in annual grants to innovators with promising ideas about using digital technology to gather and deliver local news and information. One recent grant supported a project to let investigative reporters pitch their stories on the Web to myriad potential funders. Ibarguen has also been trying to persuade community foundations around the country to consider the preservation of local news and information as part of their charters, and the Knight Foundation is offering $4 million in matching grants as an incentive.

Another journalism-focused philanthropist is tackling the gap in international coverage: After Emily Rauh Pulitzer sold the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2005, she launched the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting at the World Security Institute, which helps underwrite overseas reporting projects.

This year, Pulitzer put up a $500,000 challenge grant to help a group of former Post-Dispatch reporters and editors launch the St. Louis Beacon, a free-of-charge online news site that, much like MinnPost, aspires to cover what her former newspaper no longer does.

Alberto Ibarguen Publisher

You want to attract as many people who might have personal drivers for taking such a plan , Publisher Alberto Ibarguen said.

Ibarguen said the company was trying to maintain normal operations and decisions on who would receive the early retirement offers would be based on the needs of the company.

You also have to guard that you don't damage beyond repair the organization.We won't offer a buyout to many , many people who are needed to continue to work at the Herald , Ibarguen said.

As part of the early retirement plan being offered to employees , retirees will have the option of receiving one year's salary or two-and-a-half weeks pay for every year worked , whichever is greater.

In addition , they will be offered medical coverage for six months or until they receive insurance coverage from a new employer , whichever comes first.

Departing employees will receive a severance bonus based on age and years of service with the newspaper.