The New York Times is axing about 100 newsroom employees—7.5 percent of staff--via buyouts and layoffs in a bid to cut costs and free funds to invest in digital operations, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
In a "Dear Colleagues" letter from publisher "Pinch" Sulzberger and CEO Mark Thompson, they claim the cuts are necessary to "safeguard he long-term profitability of The Times, not because of any short-term business difficulties."
Executive editor Dean Baquet in a separate note wrote: "I will use this as an opportunity to seriously reconsider some of what we do--from the number of sections we produce to the amount we spend on freelance talent."
The Times Co. expects third-quarter and full-year profitability to be below last year. "It's a reminder that the combination of the continuing secular pressure on our high print margin advertising revenue and the need for investment in the future is impacting our profitability and this is the reason, we are now focused on cutting our costs,," the duo wrote.
The cutbacks exclude "critical areas like digital technology and core products." The company plans to invest in mobile, audience development, digital products, advertising and "targeted areas of print."
Sulzberger and Thompson also announced the death of NYT Opinion. The app, they say, "attracted early passionate loyalists and it broke new ground for The Times in the curation of the rest of the web."
However, Opinion "hasn't attracted the kind of new audience it would need to be truly scalable. So we decided to sunset the app, though we will continue to sell access to the Opinion section of the web site as a separate subscription offer."
Sulzberger and Thompson had good news of the reception of the company's Cooking app. "Just two weeks after its official launch, the product had more than 1M unique visitors—a stunning achievement which bodes very well for Cooking's future success."
The management pair emphasized their commitment to build on the talent of journalist and reputation of the NYT. The goal is to make a successful transition from print to a digitally focused business model.
Trump Media & Technology Group today reported a $58.2M net loss on $4.1M in 2023 revenues, a disclosure that drove its stock price down 22.6 percent to $47.96.
Barry Pollack, an attorney at Wall Street’s Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler, has registered Julian Assange as a client with the Justice Dept. “out of an abundance of caution.”
Paramount Global to slash 800 jobs in what chief executive Bob Bakish calls part of an effort to “return the company to earnings growth"... Rolling Stone editor-in-chief Noah Shachtman is exiting at the end of the month due to disagreements with chief executive Gus Wenner over the direction the magazine is taking... The New York Times broke the $1 billion barrier in annual revenue from digital subscriptions in 2023... Press Forward is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms.
The majority of news articles are read within the first three days of publication, according to a recent report.
The Los Angeles Times gives pink slips to 115 people or 20 percent of its newsroom staff... TIME is also laying off about 30 employees, which is approximately 15 percent of its editorial staff... The Baltimore Banner, which was launched by Stewart Bainum in 2022 after he failed to buy the Baltimore Sun, added 500 subscribers per day in the three days following Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal to purchase the Sun.
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