Posted on 09/21/2005 4:42:29 AM PDT by cloud8
The New York Times Co. – parent of the Boston Globe – is slashing a staggering 500 jobs companywide, including 160 from its New England Media Group alone, 35 of them in the Globe's newsroom.
The Globe will absorb the majority of the Times Co. cutbacks in New England, Globe publisher Richard Gilman said.
Gilman informed the Globe's approximately 2,000 full-time employees about the bad news late yesterday afternoon.
"It's not been taken well," said Dan Totten, president of the Globe's Newspaper Guild, which has 1,200 union members at the paper.
The planned bloodletting cast a pall over the Globe's newsroom. Some staffers were grumbling about Morrissey Boulevard's news operation taking a far bigger hit, from a percentage standpoint, than the Times' newsroom. The Times Co. will slash about 250 jobs from its flagship New York Times broadsheet, 45 of them within the Times' newsroom.
Shortly after the late-afternoon announcement, Globe journalists gathered in clusters throughout the sprawling newsroom to express worry about the impact of the cuts. Managers quickly called department meetings to head off rumors.
Globe staffers were buzzing about the cuts coming after the Times' top executives, including Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr., took home a total of more than $9 million in total compensation last year.
"Our editors and managers are going to be doing their darndest" to preserve the quality of all operations at the Globe, Gilman said.
The main culprit for yesterday's action, announced after the markets closed: Falling revenue companywide, excluding online operations at the Times.
Revenue at the Times Co.'s New England Media Group, which includes the Globe and Telegram & Gazette, was off 2.5 percent in August, compared with a 9.4 percent increase in August 2004, the Times Co. said in a release. The cutbacks will also affect the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
Gilman said the cutbacks are part of an industrywide trend. "Major metro newspapers across the country are experiencing difficult market conditions," he said. Indeed, the Times' announcement came on the same day the Philadelphia Inquirer and its sister newspaper said they'll ax 100 newsroom jobs due to reduced revenue. Last spring, the Herald announced its own round of job cuts.
The Times, which announced 200 staff cuts last spring, said it will begin the reductions in October and implement them over the next six to nine months.
But Gilman said the Globe may move faster. He didn't specify if there will be buyouts, straight layoffs or a combination of the two. Beyond the newsroom, Gilman said he couldn't break down where exactly the other cuts will come from, though he indicated the majority will come from the Globe's advertising, marketing and circulation units.
And why is that? Decreasing circulation, which results in less ad revenue. For the Times, at least, failing credibility also; Globe subscibers believe anything they read.
Only the liars get to keep their jobs.
This is good news for the greenies. Fewer and smaller printed newspapers, fewer trees murdered.
They should all be celebrating.
Oh tooooooooo bad, I feel sooooo osad for these BIG Corporations going down the toilet.
No really this is tooo funny.
drip drip drip
And the problem with that is what exactly? After all, it is his money. Since when do the employees get to decide what the owner pays them or what the owner makes? They really need to get a clue or start their own business.
If it came from the nytimes, how in the wrld can you tell if it is true, I mean they are not exactly known for being honest, truthfull or unbiased.
Jake
Of course, the internet is contributing to their problems. But the fact that most of the big city newspapers are extremely liberal is probably a factor as well. Judging from recent elections, I would say that the influence of liberals is decreasing in the country. People are tired of their baloney.
Isn't that just toooo bad (chucle, chorlte, laugh) And what's better yet is they'll never understand why, they're so out of touch with reality. LOL
I think the Globe endorsed Judge Roberts.
$9 million is really a small sum for that job. 'Course, he's not worth it. He really has trashed the reputation of the NYT, and that is costing them money.
It does not take many people to just sit around and make up stories rather than do some actual investigations and truth telling.
And the hits just keep on coming! I heard on O'Reilly that the LA Times fired Michael Kinsley...
Maybe. But they have done a lot more harm than good over the years.
> And the problem with that is what exactly? After all, it is his money.
It's a morale problem. Pinch styles himself as "one of the guys" in the newsroom.
The paper drones on about the plight of the poor but the boss can afford to take a $9 million bonus? How many poor people would that feed and house? Hypocrites!!
Staggering? 500 jobs was only 4% of the work force. But, I am glad that the NYT is feeling some heat for all their liberalism.
You say, "And the problem with that is what exactly? After all, it is his money. Since when do the employees get to decide what the owner pays them or what the owner makes? They really need to get a clue or start their own business."
What you're forgetting is that this is the paper that rails against capitalism and pretends to represent the poor, the union workers and the downtrodden. The hypocrisy of the whole affair is actually incredible!
As I see it, their only hope is that the United Nations takes over the internet (UN Working Group on Internet Governance) and makes a resolution outlawing blogging.
Of course, if past actions are any indication, it will take them forever to get anyone to enforce it. ;)
> But the fact that most of the big city newspapers are extremely liberal is probably a factor as well.
And they failed to draw the line between editorial policy and reporting, which never was completely accurate and unbiased, but is now so blatently slanted that people, as you say, are tired of their baloney.
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