New York Times forced to cut jobs

Many commentators says that the American newspaper industry is in a worse position than that in the UK,a fact perhaps exemplified by the news that the New York Times is to cut 100 newsroom jobs this year.

A report on the paper's website states that due to

growing financial strains

The cuts will be achieved “by not filling jobs that go vacant, by offering buyouts, and if necessary by layoffs,” the executive editor, Bill Keller, said. The more people who accept buyouts, he said, “the smaller the prospect of layoffs, but we should brace ourselves for the likelihood that there will be some layoffs.”

The paper currently employs 1332 people,by far the greatest payroll in the newsprint media,and its executive editor Bill Kelner says that even so

eliminating jobs at The Times has grown harder “because the low-hanging fruit is gone, and so is some of the higher-hanging fruit

and recognises that

the cuts could not help but affect the newspaper’s journalism

Once again the movement of traffic to the web is blamed for the cuts,even though the site has 20 million unique visitors.