Chicago Public Media CEO Melissa Bell said Tuesday that the organization was able to reach its goal of addressing a budget gap through buyouts.

The organization is saving $4.2 million through the buyouts and other cost-saving moves, such as leaving certain executive roles vacant, a spokesperson told Current.

Thirty-five Chicago Sun-Times staffers accepted the buyout, Bell said. The employees that took the buyout consisted of 15 members of the Chicago Sun-Times Guild union, which consists of editorial staffers, as well as eight staffers in nonunion editorial positions and 12 on the business side, according to the spokesperson.

The departures will reduce the Sun-Times staff by about 20%, according to a Sun-Times article . The buyout package is based on seniority and includes up to 24 weeks of severance and a $12,500 bonus, according to the article.

“Some people work behind the scenes, while others have recognizable bylines and specific areas of coverage,” Bell wrote in a letter to supporters . “Each of them has played a vital role in shaping our organization into what it is today, and all are deeply valued. Their absence will be felt, but so will their legacy, and we are truly thankful for their contribution to public service through journalism.”

Bell announced the buyout program in January as a way to “avoid more significant cost-cutting measures down the road.”

“While we’ve made strides in adapting to the rapidly changing media landscape, these efforts haven’t yet translated into the sustainable revenue we need,” Bell wrote in a letter to supporters at the time.

Bell did not address layoffs in her March 18 letter, but the spokesperson confirmed there were none.

The Sun-Times reported that Editorial Page Editor Lorraine Forte and editorial board members Tom Frisbie and Marlen Garcia are leaving. Additionally, sports columnists Rick Morrissey and Rick Telander, Chicago Bears beat writer Mark Potash and Chicago White Sox beat writer Daryl Van Schouwen are leaving, along with advice columnist Ismael Perez and assistant features editor Darel Jevens.

Columnist Michael Sneed, assistant breaking news editor and former political editor Scott Fornek, public safety and justice editor Dan Haar and deputy editor John O’Neill are also leaving, according to the paper.

“It’s really painful,” Mitchell Armentrout, a Sun-Times reporter and a Guild co-chair, told Current. “It’s bittersweet because these folks get to leave with their heads held high and at least somewhat on their own terms. But these are friends and mentors, really cherished colleagues.”

Among the staffers leaving are “probably a couple of centuries worth of institutional knowledge. That’s not something that’s easy to recover from,” he added.

Chicago Public Media’s acquisition of the Sun-Times “came with $61 million in foundation funding and there was a lot of optimism, and I think it’s fair to say that the optimism is maybe a little bit more muted at this point,” Nader Issa, a Sun-Times education reporter and Guild co-chair, told Current.

Issa said he still thinks the arrangement can succeed and that newsroom journalists are “willing to change if there are new strategies, if there are new ways to reach our audiences. … But that needs to be paired with Chicago Public Media executives doing their part to make this sustainable, and we just haven’t seen that so far in these past three years, and so we’re hoping that they can start living up to their end of the bargain too.”

In her letter, Bell announced a goal of doubling CPM’s members and supporters over the next five years.

“While this buyout significantly helps stabilize our organization, we know the future of local journalism depends on something bigger: a strong, engaged community of supporters,” she wrote.

Correction: A previous version of this article said the Sun-Times’ reported the newsroom will be reduced by 20%. It reported the staff will be reduced by 20%.