The news staff of The New York Times [NYT], owner of the Boston Globe, were asked yesterday to make additional cuts in their ranks through buyouts or face layoffs, news reports said.
"The economic environment has grown more difficult in the second half of the year, and I must reduce costs in the newsroom," the website Mashable Business quoted Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson from a memo she sent to the newsroom yesterday morning. "There is no getting around the hard news that the size of the newsroom staff must be reduced."
The memo indicated the Times is offering buyouts to newsroom employees, seeking to eliminate a total of 30 jobs to save money in the face of continuing declines in advertising or face layoffs.
"Although The New York Times Co.'s digital subscriptions business continues to grow at a healthy pace, it's not enough to offset year-over-year declines in advertising at its three big papers, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The International Herald Tribune," wrote Mashable Business reporter Lauren Indvik.
Despite the New York Times Co.'s continued success with its online paywall, advertising revenue is still falling, Adweek writer Emma Bazilian reported.
The most recent round of newsroom buyouts came in the fall of 2011 when about 20 news staffers accepted severance packages. In 2008 and 2009, the Times eliminated about 100 news jobs in each year.
