The New York Times is finished wielding the ax — for the foreseeable future.
In a memo brazenly entitled “We can exhale now,” Executive Editor Bill Keller said he has reached the goal of reducing the Gray Lady’s newsroom head count by 100 people, including 26 ousted over the past three days.
“It is my fervent hope that we will never endure another month like this one,” he said in a memo to staffers. He tried to assure a shell-shocked staff that there is “no ‘next round’ on the agenda.”
“People are taking him at his word, but realistically you always have to look at the numbers,” said one editor who was spared.
Keller also noted in his memo that there is “no guarantee” of what the future holds.
Many remember that Keller tossed out similar caveats in the wake of the February 2008 massacre, which also killed off 100 jobs, with several dozen staffers axed when the newspaper could not get enough volunteers to take severance packages.
Now the hard part starts for the survivors.
In a memo dispatched by copy chief Patrick LaForge, he said that the copy desks for the national and foreign desks would be combined starting in January. Charles Knittle, who oversaw a merger when Metro lost its standalone section status and was merged into national earlier in the year, will head the combo.
The copy editing functions of the travel and styles-home-dining sections, which had been temporarily combined, will now be made permanent.
“The cutbacks on the copy desks require us to move forward quickly with the two merger plans that have been under discussion,” LaForge said.
On the bright side, the 5-percent pay cuts that were imposed last year will be eliminated on Jan. 5, and there will be no more mandatory furloughs as there were this year.
“Indeed while the business climate remains cloudy, there are some hopeful signs — in the heft of the paper, in the display ads on the website — that we are over the worst of the economic upheaval,” said Keller.