Did Arthur Sulzberger Know About the Impending Times Newsroom Cuts Three Weeks Ago?
Earlier this afternoon, the Times newsroom staff met to hear some bad news: One hundred positions will be cut by the end of the year. The downsizing, according to a staff memo sent out by executive editor Bill Keller, will be mirrored by cuts in the editorial pages and on the business side — but no specifics on that end have yet been announced. They’ll try to achieve the newsroom reduction — which will total about 8 percent of their 1,250-person staff — will be achieved as much as possible through buyouts. Every reporter and editor (who were, according to the Observer, “totally caught off guard” by the announcement) will receive an offer on Thursday of this week, according to the memo. Keller stressed that “getting a buyout package does NOT mean we want you to leave” (nobody, it turns out, wants a newsroom of zero). But here was the most interesting part of the (otherwise depressing) memo: We often — and rightly — voice our gratitude that we work for a company and a family that prize q
