Thirty-nine longtime employees at the Spokesman-Review will leave their jobs at the end of this year after accepting an optional early-retirement package offered last month by Cowles Co., says Spokesman-Review Publisher W. Stacey Cowles.

That represents just over half of the 72 employees at the newspaper who were eligible for the retirement offer, which was extended only to employees over the age of 55 who have been with the company for 20 years or more, Cowles says.

Of those eligible to retire early at the Spokesman-Review in all of the newspaper's departments, 12 full-time newspeople have decided to leave, says Editor Gary Graham.

The Cowles Co. also owns the Journal of Business, but the early-retirement package wasn't offered to any of its employees.

Cowles says he expects that the company will rehire to fill between one-third and one-half of the positions currently held by employees who will be leaving. This is the third time in the last 15 to 20 years that the company has offered an early-retirement option to its longtime employees, he says.

Of this latest decision, he says, "We wanted to provide an opportunity for some of the more experienced employees to retire early to reduce the need for us to do layoffs.

The industry is in a huge state of transition and lost 50 percent of its revenue in the last five years. Unfortunately, it's an ongoing process to figure out how to build some profitability when the top line is collapsing."

Graham said in a blog-posted statement that the full-time reporters, editors, and photographers who will be leaving the paper are Steve Bergum, Rick Bonino, Jeff Jordan, Vince Grippi, Dave Trimmer, John Blanchette, John Craig, Kevin Graman, Bart Rayniak, Christopher Anderson, Gil Hulse, and Jim Kershner.

"Those who are leaving have played important roles in our journalism for many years, and they will be greatly missed as colleagues and friends," he said in the statement.

Graham added, though, that some of the departing journalists will continue to contribute to the paper on a freelance basis.

He also said that despite those departures, the newsroom staff still will include 23 people with at least 20 years of experience at the newspaper.

"While we are losing good people, we still are by far the largest newsgathering operation in the Inland Northwest," Graham said. "We will regroup in the next few months, developing new coverage plans and strategies for our long-term success."