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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (703432)	9/23/2005 2:34:58 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

After Job Cuts, Keller Tells 'NYT' Staff: No Relief in Sight By E&P Staff Published: September 21, 2005 10:20 AM ET NEW YORK In a memo to staffers after the announcement of steep job cuts at The New York Times, Bill Keller, executive editor, wrote: "Throughout these lean years you have worked your hearts out to perform our daily miracle, and I wish I could tell you relief was in sight. ... The economic pressures on our business have been unrelenting." He also disclosed that the paper's "budget-minders" had long projected that "2006 would be an unusually grim budget year." But he vowed that "we will not retreat, not one inch, from our commitment to put out every day the best news report in the world. We'll be there, in dazzling form, for the next Katrina, the next international crisis, the next domestic upheaval." He said he hoped to achieve the 45 newsroom cuts (out of a total of 500 throughout The New York Times Co.) through buyouts and attrition but admitted layoffs were possible. Not unexpectedly, he also announced a hiring freeze. The latest company financial review shows what was behind the latest move. The Times said it expected its third-quarter earnings to be lower than analysts predicted, at 11 cents to 14 cents a share, about half the expectations. Times' spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said one reason for this was the cost associated with the job cuts earlier this year, which were higher because more people took buyouts than had been expected. Acccording to an article in today's paper, "The company also scaled back its estimates of revenues from advertising and circulation for the year. It said advertising revenue would increase in the low single digits; it had forecast growth in the low to mid-single digits. And it said circulation revenue would be flat to down slightly; earlier it said it would be flat." Janet L. Robinson, the NYT Co.'s president and CEO, said in a statement that advertising for September "has been challenging and visibility remains limited." The company said that for August, ad revenue increased 1.7% and total company revenue increased 0.6% compared with August 2004. Elsewhere in his memo to staffers, Keller wrote: "As soon as we have information from the business side about what we can offer in the way of separation packages, we will aim to structure another round of voluntary buyouts. The buyout offers earlier this summer were extended to only a fifth of the newsroom -- areas where we thought the staff reductions would have the least impact. This time we will look at opening the field wider. "We will also look hard for non-payroll spending cuts in the hope that we can, in effect, offer up dollars instead of staff positions. ... "I won't pretend that it will be painless. Between the buyouts earlier this summer and the demands placed on us by the IHT and the Website -- not to mention the heroic commitment we've made to covering the aftermath of Katrina -- we don't have a lot of slack. Like the rest of you, I found the recent spate of retirement parties more saddening than celebratory, both for the obvious personal reasons and because they represented a sapping of our collective wisdom and experience." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E&P Staff (letters@editorandpublisher.com) editorandpublisher.com This compared to a year ago when they were down a couple pecent. So they are comming back a little. Here are some additional negative gains from liberal publications. Message 21361225