Tensions between newsroom employees and The New York Times escalated today with the announcement of a brief work slowdown this afternoon at 3 PM local time.
According to
deadlinecom, reporters and editors will leave their desks for 15 to 20 minutes. Sources at the paper say the plan it to circle through the newsroom with signs supporting copy-desk editors whose ranks are being diminished by half. They will then head down to the street outside the Times building on Eighth Avenue and West 41st Street, before returning to work. The timing of the action coincides with beginning of the busiest editing period of the day at the paper’s HQ.
“I’ve never seen morale so low at the Times,” a veteran senior writer from the Times told Deadline. “And there’s a lot of chaos in the newsroom.”
At issue is a Times plan to restructure the newsroom, eliminating what the editorial management of the paper has called redundant, unnecessary layers of editing, in order to speed up the process between story conception and publication. At the same time, the Times has been adding significantly to its reporting ranks during a time of revived competition with the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post and increased readership at both papers.
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