Volunteers would receive one week of severance pay for every six months of employment, with a maximum of 26 weeks of pay, according to the memo, which was sent to 80 people. It's unclear whether that offer is for Detroit Newspaper Guild union members only or for nonunion staff as well.

Miles declined to confirm further details of the buyout offer. The newspaper's union was not available to comment Tuesday.

Those wishing to take a buyout must inform the publication by Nov. 22.

The Detroit News' owner, Digital First Media, has a 5 percent equity stake in the joint business partnership that operates the advertising, circulation, printing and delivery of The News and rival Detroit Free Press. The partnership, which operates under a joint operating agreement approved by the U.S. Justice Department, maintains separate newsrooms, both of which are financed by the partnership's revenues.

Crain's was previously told by a source familiar with the finances of the partnership that it was not profitable as of early 2014. Partnership executives had said the same thing publicly in 2009 and 2010, amid home delivery cutbacks and rounds of staff reductions to save money.

McLean, Va.-based Gannett bought The Detroit News and other newspapers and several television stations for $717 million in 1986 from the Detroit-based Evening News Association.

In 2005, Gannett bought the Detroit Free Press for $262 million from San Jose, Calif.-based Knight Ridder Inc. and sold The Detroit News for $25 million in stock to Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc.

The Detroit News has a more complex ownership structure, but it ultimately is owned by Alden Global Capital, founded in 2007 by so-called vulture investor Randall Smith. He does not give interviews and the newspapers' finances are private.

Alden in March 2010 acquired a large, noncontrolling stake in MediaNews Group as its parent, Affiliated Media Inc., also based in Denver, emerged from bankruptcy.

Digital First Media was formed in September 2010. It manages the MediaNews Group and former Journal Register Co. newspapers, which were merged under the Digital First Media name.