One hundred jobs in the editorial department will be cut, according to a letter from the management to employees. According to publisher Arthur Sulzberger Junior and managing director Mark Thompson, this corresponds to around 7.5 percent of the 1,330 employees in the journalistic department. In addition, the paper wants to part with some employees in other business areas.

The New York Times has been struggling to remain profitable for years and is focusing on expanding its online business. To this end, new jobs have been created in the internet and video sectors in recent years. According to the paper, the total number of employees has risen to an all-time high as a result.

The job cuts were "necessary to keep our costs under control and allow us to continue investing in the digital future of The New York Times," it said. The newspaper's management is aware that the cuts are "painful" - "both for those affected and for their colleagues", according to the letter from publisher Arthur Sulzberger and managing director Mark Thompson to employees. As part of the job cuts, those affected should be offered voluntary redundancy. However, if there are not enough people interested, redundancies are also possible.

In addition, "NYT Opinion", a new app for opinion pieces, is to be discontinued due to insufficient user interest. The cost-cutting measures are intended to ensure the newspaper's long-term profitability.

 

In a message to employees on Monday, the paper offered severance pay. According to the newspaper's online edition, editor-in-chief Bill Keller explained that if this did not free up enough jobs, redundancies would also be necessary. The New York Times has already cut numerous jobs in the past year due to declining advertising revenues and falling subscriber numbers, but mainly in the non-journalistic area. In addition, employees waived five percent of their wages in order to avoid further job cuts.
Keller said that even with the new cost-cutting measures, the newspaper remains the paper with the largest and most ambitious team of journalists in the USA, if not the world. According to the New York Times, it currently has around 1,250 journalists. No other US newspaper has more than 750, it said.