New York Times Planning Pay Cuts, 100 Layoffs

 

NEW YORK, NY (March 26, 2009) – The New York Times is planning 5 percent pay cuts for most employees for up to nine months in return for 10 days' leave time, and they will lay off 100 workers and make additional budget cuts, according to Times executives. The newspaper announced the move today in a story on their Web site.

The pay cuts are across the board for non-union employees, from the top to the bottom including executives, and at corporate headquarters and the Times and other New York Times properties, including The Boston Globe.

The Times' Ricahrd Pérez-Peña reported in today's Web story that the company is "characterizing its move with non-union employees as a pay cut rather than mandatory leave ... to avoid strict federal rules governing furloughed employees."

Included in cost-saving measures will be a reduction the newspaper's freelance budget, Pérez-Peña said.

Most newsroom employees at the Times are represented by the Guild, and Times executives said today they intend to ask the Guild to encourage its members to also take the 5 percent pay cut and 10 days off in oder to avoid possible layoffs.

The layoff of 100 workers is about 5 percent of the Times' workforce of 2,000, the paper says, and comes on the heels of laying off 27 advertising department workers in February and about 500 workers in January. The Times says they had 9,346 employees at the end of 2008, which is 1,363 less than the same time period two years ago.

 

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