After years of resisting the newsroom cuts that have hit most of the industry, The New York Times will bow to growing financial strain and eliminate about 100 newsroom jobs this year, the executive editor said Thursday.
The cuts will be achieved “by not filling jobs that go vacant, by offering buyouts, and if necessary by layoffs,” the executive editor, Bill Keller, said. The more people who accept buyouts, he said, “the smaller the prospect of layoffs, but we should brace ourselves for the likelihood that there will be some layoffs.”
He said, “We intend to move quickly, to get any cuts past us so that we do not spend a year bleeding slowly.”
The Times has 1,332 newsroom employees, the largest number in its history; no other American newspaper has more than about 900. There were scattered buyouts and job eliminations in the newsroom in recent years, but the overall number continued to rise, largely from the growth of its Internet operations.
By the way, the NYT's share price circa 2002? US$52. In January? About US$15.
If you dare, go to this globeinvestor page on the New York Times Co. and and look at the five-year chart of the NYT's stock compared to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. One's going up. And one's going down. :(