New York Times to eliminate 100 editorial jobs

The New York Times plans to cut100 newsroom jobs - about 8 per cent of the total - by year's end, offering buyouts to union and nonunion employees, and resorting to layoffs, the paper said yesterday.

The programme mirrors one carried out in the spring of 2008, when the paper erased 100 positions in its newsroom, though other jobs were created, so the net reduction was smaller.

In his memo to the staff, executive editor Bill Keller told staff on Monday, ''We have been told to reduce the newsroom by 100 positions between now and the end of the year.''

''We hope to accomplish this by offering voluntary buyouts. On Thursday, the company will be sending buyout offers to everyone in the newsroom. Getting a buyout package does NOT mean we want you to leave. It is simply easier to send the envelopes to everyone. If you think a buyout may be right for you, you have up to 45 days to decide whether you will accept it or not,'' Keller said.

''As before, if we do not reach 100 positions through buyouts, we will be forced to go to layoffs. I hope that won't happen, but it might,'' he added.

In fact, when employees took a 5 per cent pay cut for most of this year, it was meant to forestall any staff reductions. But hopes for a year-end turnaround in the newspaper business have faded.