NY Times to Fire 190 Employees

The Times is in the midst of a "trough" that will lead to the elimination of nearly 200 jobs. Who will be canned? Not the high-priced newsroom folks:

Newsroom reductions will come from a "voluntary reduction program," the company said. The reductions should be implemented by the end of August, Times Co. said.All told, the reductions amount to less than 2% of the company's total workforce, it added.

"Staff reductions will be carefully managed so that they do not adversely affect journalistic quality, the smooth functioning of the Company's daily operations and the ability to achieve its long-term strategic goals," the company's statement said.

Journalistic quality?

Bill Keller, executive editor, wrote that the newspaper "concluded we can tolerate a slight contraction in staffing in certain parts of the newsroom, by reorganizing and consolidating duties in a waythat will not damage the paper," in a memo posted at Romenesko at www.poynter.org.

How can such a staunch supporter of working people lay so man blue collar types off? It wouldn't be because of the almighty dollar would it?

"Given the current challenges in the advertising at the Times and the Globe and the cloudy economic outlook for the remainder of the year, we believed it was prudent to accelerate these ongoing cost control efforts.

"The Times Co. said it had not yet calculated how big a charge against earning it will have to take because of the staff reduction. It said it will likely make the size of that charge public at the Mid-Year Media Review in June.

Why yes it is about money. My goodness, how Republican of the Times.