NEW YORK - The New York Times, feeling the squeeze affecting newspapers everywhere, said Wednesday it would eliminate about a dozen support staff jobs from its newsroom.
Executive editor Bill Keller told Times employees in an e-mail message that the job cuts were the first to affect the paper's newsroom "in recent memory," but would not involve laying off any reporters.
Keller said the paper would close a newsroom support unit called the recording room, where stories or speeches are transcribed, and also trim several clerical and secretarial jobs.
Bill O'Meara, the president of the Newspaper Guild of New York, which represents newsroom employees at the Times, said the union was discussing the possibility of offering voluntary severance packages in hopes of eliminating the need for involuntary terminations.
Keller, in his memo, also said the company anticipated cutting a few management jobs in administrative areas next year.
In addition to its flagship newspaper, The New York Times Co. also publishes The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, and a group of 15 community newspapers.
