New York Times to axe 100 newsroom jobs but 'no short-term difficulties'
The New York Times is to cut jobs across the company, including about 100 positions in the newsroom, the publisher disclosed yesterday.
Mark Thompson: Former BBC chief
CEO Mark Thompson, former director general of the BBC and Publisher Arthur Sulzberger said in a note to employees they were reducing the cost base of the company to safeguard the long-term profitability of The Times, "not because of any short-term business difficulties,”
The shares rose 9.6 percent to $12.30 at the close in New York, the biggest gain since July 2012.
In a memo to the newsroom, Executive Editor Dean Baquet said there will be forced layoffs if 100 newsroom jobs can’t be eliminated through voluntary buyouts.
In a story on its website, the Times reported that it amounts to about 7.5 percent of the newsroom staff. The Times will still have more than 1100 journalists.
A smaller number of positions will be reduced on the business side, according to Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the company.
John Eade, an analyst at Argus Research Co, told Bloomberg, that digital revenues “just haven’t been growing fast enough to meet the company’s earning targets, and now it looks like they’re finally going to address that cost structure. This kind of move is going to boost earnings.”
The stock has declined 29 percent this year .
The company said today that it’s expecting profit to fall again in the third quarter and for the full year as operating costs rise.
The Times is also eliminating some products in the wake of smaller-than-expected audiences on some of its new apps, including the NYT Opinion app.
Sulzberger and Thompson said more than 40,000 net new digital subscribers were added in the third quarter, the most since 2012. They said that more core subscribers and international customers will help circulation revenue rise in the period. Native advertising and mobile growth will help lead to a 16 percent gain in digital advertising revenue.
Baquet took over in May, replacing Jill Abramson, who was ousted after less than three years as executive editor -- the first woman to hold the title.