New York Times cost-cutting sees editor roles slashed
The New York Times is pursuing another round of aggressive cost-cutting by slashing the number of editors on its books in a bid to streamline the production process and put a lid on costs.
New York Times cost cutting sees editor roles slashed
This will see the position of public editor axed while journalists will be offered buyouts to bring staff numbers down – although compulsory lay-offs haven’t been ruled out if there are insufficient takers.
Justifying the decision to end the position of in-house watchdog publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr said in a statement: “Today, our followers on social media and our readers across the internet have come together to collectively serve as a modern watchdog, more vigilant and forceful than one person could ever be.”
This follows moves to vastly increase the number of NYT articles available for public comment from just 10% at present to a majority. The title, in common with most publications, has been battling to overhaul its business model to meet the rigors of the digital age with the success of drawing in 2.2m online subscribers being offset by continued falls in advertising revenues.
It’s not all bad news for staff however as the NYT has pledged to allocate savings made as a result of the changes to recruit up to 100 additional journalists to bolster its reporting team.
In an effort to marry its digital and print output the NYT recently announced that it would publish reporters' tweets in the physical edition of its paper.