The New York Times confirmed Wednesday that it had made a limited but unspecified number of involuntary cuts to its newsroom staff in order to meet its goal of reducing head count there by 100, says an Associated Press (AP) report.
Executive Editor Bill Keller said in a memo to staff that while the "overwhelming majority" of cuts came from volunteers accepting buyout offers, the paper had to make "relatively small numbers" of involuntary cuts in order to meet the target.
Some details:
Keller said the paper wouldn't disclose the number of people let go or their names, and Times spokeswoman Abbe Serphos declined to comment on whether the cuts included newsroom managers.
The Times had indicated last month that it would likely have to resort to involuntary cuts in order to meet its reduction goal, which was first announced in February. The newspaper had about 1,330 newsroom employees then, making the reductions equivalent to 8 percent of the paper's editorial staff.
Job cuts have become common in the U.S. newspaper industry amid falling advertising revenues due to the economic downturn and the loss of ad business to the Internet. The New York Times Co., which also owns The Boston Globe and several other newspapers, reported last month that advertising revenue slumped 9.2 percent in the first quarter.
