A minimum of 120 employees at the San Francisco Chronicle have applied for buyout packages, Editor & Publisher reported. The deadline to apply was Tuesday.

The California Media Workers Guild was notified of how many had applied by Chronicle managers. Those who have accepted the offer have a three-day grace period to finalise the acceptance before it becomes official. Therefore, "the final number of buyout applications won't be known until Friday evening," the Guild stated.

Hearst Corp., the paper' parent company, had aimed at eliminating 150 jobs from its guild-member staff, including newsroom, circulation and commercial departments. The severance packages offer two weeks pay for each year of service, up to one year, as well as health benefits, E&P reported.

The fate of the Chronicle remains uncertain, with discussion of a possible closure or sale circulating for months. The Guild was able to confirm that additional layoffs could take place sometime in mid-April.