In February 2010, Advance Publications is ending its "no layoffs" policy, which has shielded The Oregonian's newsroom employees from the mass layoffs that have been thinning other newspapers.

Fred Stickel was seen as protecting those employees from the ax.

Recent rounds of buyouts, restructuring, furloughs, pay cuts, pension freezes, health insurance cuts and layoffs of non-newsroom employees were all ways of reducing costs without sending newsroom staff out the door involuntarily.

Still, the paper's newsroom workforce has seen a drop from over 400 to under 300, due largely to voluntary buyouts announced one year ago.

Those buyouts gave workers with over 10 years of experience at the paper a two-year pay and health care package. Those who left have included big names, like managing editor Michael Arrieta-Walden and columnists S. Renee Mitchell, Jonathan Nicholas and David Reinhard, as well as dozens of people who were instrumental to the paper's daily operations.

What will the future hold without layoff protection and without Stickel?

"It's definitely a shock to the system," one employee told OMC. "It's hard to imagine this place without him."

They added, "I know that some are wishing they had taken the buyout."