The Chicago Tribune, larger sister paper of The Courant, is shedding more jobs — this time in the form of a voluntary buyout.

This is probably the most humane way to go about cutting costs, though the severance deal being offered will probably not be all that much help to longtime journalists. They may have to spend a long time out in the cold before finding suitable employment.

Here’s what I don’t  get, however: The Tribune story says that Gerry Kern, editor and senior vice president,  “reiterated his commitment to strategically building capabilities in local news, investigative reporting, digital media and other areas, despite the planned downsizing of staff.”

In a business that relies heavily on boots on the ground, how do you do that? Or is that just the kind of thing that gets said as the business slowly evaporates?