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.
Call the photographer to get a picture of that "pall over the Globe's newsroom."
How many Globe reporters predators will be losing their jobs?
I agree.
Major metro newspapers across the country are experiencing difficult market conditions,"
...SHOULD READ: Major LIBERAL metro newspapers across the country are experiencing difficult market conditions,"
Poor Dan - the Nixon of the 90's!
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