Irony abounds here: Amid bankruptcy talk, the paper is looking to a free web tool to save itself? And it’s doing so when the main Strib Twitter feed has remained un-updated since October? (I’m unsure if @startribune, which last posted on Oct. 7, is the paper’s official Twitter feed or if @strib, which shows no followers yet some 8,600 updates, is.) And they’ve got a Twitter account set up for one of those taking a buyout, Chismar of the Greengirls blog?

Scanning through its Twitter accounts, it seems like the paper’s 24 blogs are following the letter of the law, but not the spirit. All sites appear to be updated automatically, mostly through Twitterfeed, instead of via personalized tweets. (While all blogs are on Twitter, it’s unclear that all bloggers themselves are required to contribute. My direct-tweets to various bloggers have gone unanswered.) With wave after wave of buyouts, who can blame those who remain?

In a recent post, Kay Krhin of the parenting blog Cribsheet confirms that all Strib blogs are on Twitter, giving a clue to what you won’t be finding there:

Cribsheet is now on Twitter, along with the rest of the Star Tribune blogs. I know as of right now that May and I won’t be giving you a play by play of our days with things like “Diaper report. Orange. Too many clementine cuties?” or “I just stepped on Lightning McQueen with my bare foot. Spoiler and all. Ow!” We are both feeling a little too blogged down to commit to twittering and add it to our reportoire. BUT if you are one who follows Twitter’s tweets and want to know when we’ve put up a new Cribsheet post. You can sign up and follow us…

Here’s more details of the memo.

Aschburner quickly regretted his decision, recognizing it as an “impulsive, stressed-out thing” complicated by personal issues and the “ticking bomb” nature of the five-day clause, and within four days he told his editor he wanted to stay. For the past six weeks he’s been pleading with Star Tribune managers to let him keep doing a job he loves — but what he’s found is that management sees his buyout as anything but voluntary.

For 13 of his nearly 21 years at the Star Tribune, Aschburner’s beat has been the NBA, and the Minnesota Timberwolves in particular, and in that time he has earned praise from fans — including one who hailed his ability to work the word “vomitorium” into a piece on a Timberwolves’ loss — and colleagues alike (he recently finished a two-year stint as president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association). And while he couched his successes in modest terms, he admitted, “I really loved my job, and I think I made [the Star Tribune's NBA coverage] into a brand.”

But in the five days after the Star Tribune sale to Avista Capital Partners was finalized, he found himself facing a “perfect storm” that fueled his decision to leave his job: “The grind of the season, the isolation of the road, some miscommunication with my wife and then the shock and scare of a friend’s and peer’s death.” A sudden heart attack killed his colleague, the seemingly healthy 55-year-old Hartford Courant sports reporter Alan Greenberg, and seeing himself as out-of-shape, he wondered if he was next. Combined, these factors left him “in no position to be making a life-altering decision.”

But the long view is this: he loves his job and has no problems with the paper’s new management. His desire to stay isn’t about a change of heart. Instead, his fleeting wish to leave was a “hiccup” in judgment, but now the paper is viewing that mistake as the norm and his the two decades of eager service as an anomaly, he said. The Star Tribune denied his request to rescind his buyout application, citing budget concerns, according to a letter sent to publisher Par Ridder by members of the paper’s Newspaper Guild unit.

Referencing conversations with Aschburner and letters from his doctor, Guild members Jaime Chismar, Pam Miller and Chris Serres wrote that they believed Aschburner was under “emotional duress” when he indicated his interest in the buyout, and that he was in no condition to “reflect clearly on how leaving the Star Tribune would affect his career and family.” They continued:

To deny Steve the opportunity to continue his career at this newspaper, especially in light of the anxiety he was under at the time of the resignation deadline, seems senseless and cruel. We urge compassion and respect for a dedicated journalist who loved the Star Tribune and is prepared to remain a productive contributor for many years to come.

Aschburner has also received unexpected and unsought support from sportswriting colleagues. Phil Jasner of the Philadelphia Daily News and Doug Smith of the Toronto Star have both written letters to Aschburner’s editor urging his reinstatement.

After finishing out the Timberwolves’ season, Aschburner’s last day of work was Friday, April 20, and he has not yet considered what he’ll do next. He said he won’t pursue legal action against the Star Tribune and isn’t bitter about management’s decision, but he still holds out hope for a change of heart.

“Someone is going to have to cover that team and league going forward, and no one on staff wants it or has experience,” he said. “I am dying to stay on the job.”

In times when the paper is in upheaval after the departures of 23 other newsroom staffers, continuing budget concerns and the turmoil of a new publisher accused of swiping business secrets and staffers from his old employer, the Pioneer Press, why is the Star Tribune refusing to welcome back a popular, well-recognized and, above all, enthusiastic member of its team?

Photo: Steve Aschburner with Kevin Garnett, via Garnett Tribute.

We wanted you to know that 24 employees have decided to take advantage of the dismissal pay provision in the contract and resign from the Star Tribune.

A number of these staff members had planned to retire this year or in 2008, after long and rich careers. Others chose to take this opportunity to take a break from daily journalism, and some said they plan to return to school or look at other career options.

Several of those who are leaving have been high-profile writers who are well known to our readers. Others have made their contributions as copy editors, designers, support staff employees and news assistants.

There’s no doubt that all 24 people whose names are listed below have made this a better newspaper and workplace. As we all know, daily journalism work is a commitment of heart as well as mind and words alone cannot thank people enough for the work that they have done over the years. We will miss all of our colleagues and we wish them only the best as they pursue this change in their lives.

We plan to recognize their accomplishments at 3 p.m. Friday in the A/B assembly rooms. We’re hoping all of you will be able to take time out to attend. Here are the 24 people we will be honoring:

Judy Arginteanu
Bill Arthur
Steve Aschburner
Mike Carroll
Bob Franklin
Gretchen Gramenz
Doug Halliday
Jeremy Iggers
Jocelina Joiner
Tom Jones
Jim Landberg
Bob Lutsey
Ron Meador
Richard Parker
Darlene Prois
John Reinan
Pam Schmid
Al Sicherman
David Silk
Derek Simmons
Tom Simon
Dane Smith
Brad Stokman
Margaret Zack

Update follows…Update 3 p.m.: The Star Tribune’s coverage of the buyouts said the departure of these 24 employees represents a 7 percent reduction in the newsroom’s 361-person staff. In its farewell blog post to those who chose to leave, the Strib’s unit of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild wrote that the combined experience of Guild members who’ll be vacating desks on Friday tops 450 years. After informing members about the 24 goodbye cards available for signing, the Guild blog includes this telling announcement:

While management moves to put out a paper with fewer people, it’s important that Guild members not allow that decision to come at their expense. Members should watch their hours carefully and put in for any overtime needed to do their jobs.

A  reminder: Guild members are entitled to cash at 1.5 times every hour of overtime worked.

Smith started at the Minneapolis Star in 1977 covering Anoka County and the northern suburbs before getting hired across the river, where he reported Ramsey County news for three years and served as the Pioneer Press’ Washington correspondent for another three. He’s stayed put as legislative reporter for the Star Tribune since 1986, spending two decades working to maintain “slavish balance” in his reporting (case in point: he co-wrote a book on Sen. Paul Wellstone, and Taxpayers’ League president David Strom counts him as a friend). As he prepares to leave — hopefully, he said, to do more writing and teaching on politics, as he’s done at Inver Hills Community College for three years — he agreed to discuss the future of political coverage at the Star Tribune, his “eat-your-spinach” take on journalism, and the “media jackals” he’ll miss when he’s gone.PS: These are uncertain times at the paper. Was that a factor in your decision — like, maybe you should get out while a good buyout offer was available instead of waiting it out?

DS: It was a factor. I have to say it was. I’m concerned about the increasing pressure to do more with less. When you’re feeling a little like you’d like to do something else anyway, that doesn’t help.

PS: The paper’s two Washington, D.C., bureau reporters, Rob Hotakainen and Kevin Diaz, are staying with McClatchy, and until their replacements are hired, the Star Tribune will have only an intern covering D.C. How do you think political reporting will fare after your departure?

DS:  I think they’ll be OK, if they replace Diaz and Hotakainen and they replace me — I’m urging them to do so. The word is they’re not going to replace any of these people — net — but they might move people around. I’ve been making a pitch that they get somebody (at the Capitol), because this is really the news fountainhead here. This is all very traumatic and unexpected, but there’s been a sort of sky-is-falling mentality in the newspaper business ever since I started. I remember going on strike in 1980. That whole strike was about fears of what electronic journalism would do to our product, whether they’d take our product and sell it in some way. I never did really understand the issues.

The profits are really still substantial. I don’t know the new owners are interested in losing circulation any further with obvious cuts and diminution of quality. But that isn’t what’s really driven my decision here. It’s purely wanting to do something else.

PS:  Does the fact that this is Avista’s first newspaper give you pause — that they’re more experienced at investing than journalism?

DS: Sure, it’s a concern. But I think there’s broad and high regard for the Star Tribune. David Carr, who writes about media for the New York Times and has roots in the Twin Cities, wrote about the Star Tribune’s coverage. He talked about how its real strength was its political coverage and its community coverage. This is a very civically involved, civically aware, civically healthy state and community, and I think everybody’s hoping the new owners get that as soon as possible and continue to provide the meat and potatoes people need to make the democracy work. I think the fact that we’ve got some newspaper family leaders in Chris Harte and Par Ridder may be a good thing. They understand those traditions.

PS: The push for profits is interesting, but both former publisher Keith Moyer, when he left, and new editor Nancy Barnes, when she took over, said a newspaper is a “public trust.” Then there’s this move to give readers what they say they want. In some ways are these goals at cross-purposes?

DS: That tension has always been there: do we give people what they say they want or do we give them what’s good for them? Eat-your-spinach journalism versus titillation and sensationalism. That’s not new, either. I’m an old-school eat-your-spinach kind of guy, so naturally I think we should do more of what I’ve done and less of the flashy stuff. But I also buy into the idea of trying to make our material more palatable and easier to read and easier to digest and adding in layering elements.

PS: Any regrets?

DS: Not really. I’ve made some mistakes, but I’ve avoided any hugely controversial errors or ethical controversies. When you’re covering a game as rough as this, that’s always something. On both sides — all sides, there’s not both let’s always remember that — pretty much everybody involved thinks I’ve been fair. I’ve tried hard to be complete in coverage and human in treatment of people. I don’t have a reputation as a cheap-shot artist. Probably the opposite: probably that I’m too soft.

PS: Your advice for your successor?

DS: It seems obvious: Always pay attention to who’s getting what and why. I’ve always liked the old saw about comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. That’s something I think journalists should always keep in their minds as a founding principle of American journalism.

PS: What will you miss?

DS: The camaraderie with the “media jackals” down here. We were so named by Jesse Ventura, you know. It’s a pretty close-knit group. And having a front-row seat all the time. I can’t imagine I won’t miss that a little bit. Literally, you get to sit in the front row at the governor’s press conference and ask impertinent questions. It’s an incredible license, and it’s kind of fun. You sometimes hear the analogy: People who do what we do talk about getting a grown-up job some day.

PS: Is that what’s next for you?

DS: Right. Enough of this fun. It’s really pretty stressful. Deadlines every day, and the kinds of stuff we report on is always controversial. You sweat it every morning when you log on that you made a big mistake and it’s going to have terrible consequences, you’re going to cost somebody the election because of something you got wrong. It’s a heavy burden, really. I won’t miss that part.

Article VIII of the Star Tribune’s contract with the Minnesota Newspaper Guild and Typographical Union ensures all employees represented by the union the right to exercise a buyout should the paper be sold to an outside buyer. Within five days of a sale, employees must express their interest in the option; in return, they’ll receive two weeks of pay for every year worked, with a 40-week maximum. The purchase by Avista is expected to be completed in “early 2007.” While the Guild represents employees at the St. Paul Pioneer Press as well, the stipulation is specific to Star Tribune’s Guild members.

Pat Doyle, Guild officer and veteran Star Tribune capitol reporter,  says the benefit of this stipulation is that it allows employees “to trigger their own buyouts” rather than be forced to accept terms established by management.

The provision in the Guild’s contract was invoked in 1998 when the Cowles family sold the paper to the McClatchy group for $1.2 billion (more than double Avista’s $530 million bid), but through a special agreement, only 12 employees received “buyouts.” The agreement applied only to the Cowles’ sale of the paper to McClatchy; the Guild did not waive its rights to enforce this provision in the future.

“The Guild’s position on this issue is even firmer and stronger than it was in ‘98,” Doyle said. “It’s in the contract. It’s pretty clear-cut, and it’s never been removed or shot down in any way.”

But Eric Black, a Star Tribune writer for nearly 30 years, is more cautious. He says the buyout option is “enough money to get your attention,” but adds a qualifier: “If  it turns out to be an offer that’s on the table, I’m sure quite a few people will take advantage of it.”

“It’s in the contract, and it’s clear to me what’s intended,” he said. “Being cautious about such things and having been through the deal in ‘98, I don’t foreclose the possibility that either the old owners or the new owners will come up with some kind of interpretation that would either try to get out of that offer or limit it in some way.”

While Doyle wouldn’t offer an estimate on how many staffers might be interested in buyouts, he said that after a Guild representative informed members about it on Tuesday, “It seemed to be of great interest to a lot of people.”

A list of staff start-dates circulating at the paper shows that at least 76  employees have 25 years or more experience, including some of its best-known writers: food columnist Al Sicherman (who celebrates his 39th anniversary in 2007), film critic Jeff Strickler (36 years), political reporter Conrad Defiebre (34 years), music writer Jon Bream (32 years), political reporter Lori Sturdevant (31 years), metro columnist Doug Grow (28 years), theater critic Graydon Royce (27 years), and National Press Award-winning cartoonist Steve Sack (26 years).

The Star Tribune’s management representative was unavailable for comment.