NYT Co. to Axe 190 Jobs, Including Journos, at 'Times' and 'Globe'

By: E&P Staff The New York Times Co. will shed 190 employees, mostly at its flagship newspaper, the company announced Wednesday.

In a statement, the company said the reductions will include "fewer than two dozen" employees in The New York Times newsroom. About two-thirds of the reductions will occur at the Times, with the rest coming from the company's New England Media Group, which includes The Boston Globe.

Newsroom reductions will come from a "voluntary reduction program," the company said. The reductions should be implemented by the end of August, Times Co. said.

All told, the reductions amount to less than 2% of the company's total workforce, it added. "Staff reductions will be carefully managed so that they do not adversely affect journalistic quality, the smooth functioning of the Company's daily operations and the ability to achieve its long-term strategic goals," the company's statement said.

Bill Keller, executive editor, wrote that the newspaper "concluded we can tolerate a slight contraction in staffing in certain parts of the newsroom, by reorganizing and consolidating duties in a way
that will not damage the paper," in a memo posted at Romenesko at www.poynter.org.

"Throughout our 154-year history, we have experienced peaks and troughs but we have always found a way to prosper. We have continued confidence in our shared vision, intellect and values, and we know that we will weather this challenge as well," wrote New York Times Publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr. and New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson in a memo.

They also revealed: "Earlier this year, we began rigorously evaluating our operations to determine how we could further streamline them to improve efficiency and lower costs. At both The Times newspaper and the New England Media Group, many departments have identified cost savings and generally supported efforts to improve our bottom line. All of these efforts have included cross-functional groups of employees who are dedicated full-time to examining different functional processes.

"Given the current challenges in the advertising at the Times and the Globe and the cloudy economic outlook for the remainder of the year, we believed it was prudent to accelerate these ongoing cost control efforts."

The Times Co. said it had not yet calculated how big a charge against earning it will have to take because of the staff reduction. It said it will likely make the size of that charge public at the Mid-Year Media Review in June.