Reader: How did USA Today's buyouts work?

I'm responding to a question in this post about the terms of USA Today's buyouts extended to newsroom staffers last month. The paper offered two weeks' pay for each year of Gannett employment to folks with 15 or more years' service. The offer also included health insurance. There were a couple of exceptions: Staffers with five or more years experience online weren't eligible. Copy editors were exempt, too, as were a handful of other jobs.

In my case, with 20 years' service, I'm getting 40 weeks' pay over the next 10 month -- just as if I was still an employee, but I no longer show up for work. Two weeks for every year seems to be the standard. And it's better than the severance given to some USA Today employees on the business side, who lost their jobs in an outright layoff with lower benefits around the time the buyouts were announced.