Report: Hundreds of Layoffs Coming To NY Times

The New York Times Co. is preparing to lay off a few hundred staffers in the second half of the year, The NY Post is reporting.

Chairman and Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.’s management team has been talking with some of the Times’ unions to come to a deal to provide reduced severance to those affected, sources told The Post.

“There’s a goal of a couple of hundred people,” said a source familiar with talks. “They don’t want to pay out big packages, and they’re having negotiations with the unions.”

The layoffs would likely occur between the Aug. 21 end of the summer Olympics in Brazil and Election Day on Nov. 8, sources said.

The Gray Lady is also looking at either a radical downsizing or closure of its Paris office, and has been moving people to London, where it can have better control of letting staff go, since French law makes it very difficult and expensive for companies to lay off workers, one source said.

In a February memo, Executive Editor Dean Baquet told staff about a newsroom overhaul. He noted that reporters and editors were “sometimes left exhausted and confused.” The memo did not mention layoffs.

A Times spokeswoman had no comment.

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