By: E&P Staff The New York Times announced Friday that it will scale back to four separate sections most days in its metro-area editions to cut production costs. The number of pages devoted to coverage will remain unchanged, according to the Times.
Saturday editions already run to only four sections. Sunday editions will continue to contain more than four sections. In the new arrangement, copies will consist of four sections Monday through Wednesday.
Beginning early next month, the Metro report will move into the A section with world and national news, Monday through Saturday and perhaps also on Sunday. Sports will appear in the same section with Business Day Tuesday through Friday, but remain a standalone section the other days.
In a note to the newsroom staff, Executive Editor Bill Keller said editors are considering the visibility of local news in the new arrangement, with the possibility of using more local coverage on Page One.
"We are not reducing the space devoted to Metro or Sports news," Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. told the paper's staff. "This is simply a way to produce the paper more efficiently."
The change will eliminate overtime but not jobs, according to Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis. Estimated savings were not disclosed. Unnamed executives told Times reporter Richard Perez Pena that annual savings were expected to be in the millions of dollars.
The Times' Goss Colorliner presses at its College Point plant can print four sections in one pass. Advance runs preprint sections, which are later mechanically combined with late-run news sections.
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