Rift widens between New York Times newsroom, business side
By Leah McBride Mensching, Monday 3 March 2008 at 21:46 :: Labor & Employment :: #1347 :: rss
The deadline for New York Times newsroom employees to accept buyouts is Tuesday, in an attempt by the newspaper to shrink the newsroom by 100 positions. The buyouts, however, are viewed by some inside The Times as “a victory of sorts,” Portfolio.com reported Monday.
The business side of the newspaper has “taken a majority of the hits so far, while the newsroom has stayed untouched,” an unnamed source close to business management at The Times told Portfolio.
While the tension between editorial and business is common at most newspapers, the current situation at the newspaper “goes well beyond that. It had become more than just a normal debate,” a former executive told Portfolio.
The executive said that the current newsroom cuts are not only a step toward a better bottom line, but also a way to attempt to mend the growing rift between the two departments.
“It's not like the $5 million or $10 million or whatever the number is is going to get them into significantly better business performance. I don't think the problem with The Times is that the newsroom is inefficient by 2 or 3 percent,” the source said, according to Portfolio. “The real issue is, what is the business side doing to monetize the content? Are they doing all that they can to operate in such a way that the business could be profitable enough to pay for all that great journalism?”
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