New York Times to implement across the board pay cuts

Posted by Emma Heald on March 27, 2009 at 3:47 PM

All New York Times staff are facing a 5% pay cut for 9 months starting from April, and 100 employees on the business side are being laid off, the New York Times Company announced yesterday. Non-union employees at the Boston Globe are also affected, as are those at the group's corporate headquarters. Executive editor Bill Keller said that the pay cut should avert newsroom staff cuts at the NYT this year: although if the Newspaper Guild does not agree with the 5% drop for those it represents on the newsroom staff, Keller announced that 60-70 people would have to be let go.

Publisher Arthur Sulzberger and CEO Janet Robinson wrote a memo to staff in which they described the decision as "very difficult" and blamed the "toughest" environment that they have seen for years. In return for the pay cut, staff will receive 10 days extra holiday this year: so in effect, the employees are being told to take two weeks of unpaid leave. According to the NYT journalist Richard Perez-Pena, the move is being presented as a pay cut rather than forced unpaid leave to avoid federal rules with respect to furloughed employees, at least with regard to non-union workers. Salaries should return to the previous level in 2010 provided economic conditions improve.

With nearly 1,300 journalists, the NYT has one of the largest newsrooms in the industry, and this is not the first time that it has become clear that the paper is suffering the effects of the financial crisis. 100 newsroom jobs were cut last year through buyouts and layoffs, the paper's headquarters have effectively been mortgaged and the company has sought out a $250m investment from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.

As papers tackle declines in advertising revenue and declining circulation due to the migration of readers online, the NYT is far from alone in its decision to make cutbacks. The Washington Post also announced yesterday that it would offer buyouts to selected employees, including some newsroom staff, but numbers were not clear. Other publishers such as Gannett Co and Advance Publications have already announced considerable furloughs, and several papers across the US have already folded, gone online-only or seem on the brink of closure.

Source: New York Times, Guardian, Agence France-Presse