'NY Times' Editor Likens Newspapers to Vinyl

New York Times executive editor Bill Keller got off easy in his morning Q&A session with staff, where he broke the news that the paper will eliminate 100 newsroom jobs this year. Not so in his afternoon chat.

With word of the cuts fast spreading through Times HQ, more than twice as many people showed up for the 2:30 session, according to staffers who attended. Although the mood was subdued rather than emotional, several employees posed tough questions that put Keller on the spot. One asked whether Keller foresees a day in the near future that the Times will cease to publish a print edition. Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. has said he thinks that day could be less than five years away.

"Bill said that, despite what Arthur has said, he didn't believe it was going to happen anytime soon," says one staffer. "He didn't see it as something imminent."

Keller then tried to lighten the mood with a joke, noting, "There are still people who buy vinyl records." That didn't get much of a laugh.

Keller insisted the Times will continue to build up staff on the digital side, but he resisted going into specifics about how many jobs the paper will add there, or how much in cost savings it will reap from the newsroom cuts, says the staffer. He did offer that "most" of the 100 jobs eliminated will be journalists, rather than art and photo editors, receptionists or others whose duties place them in the newsroom. (According to Media Mob, Keller promised at the morning meeting that "the leadership of the newsroom will share in the sacrifice.")

He also, unprompted, addressed the wisdom of weakening the paper's newsgathering resources at a moment when the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal is gearing up for war.

"He was saying that he's been through newspaper wars before, and he felt the best response was to take the offensive rather than hunker down -- to continue to do the best journalism and best reporting, and not pay attention to what they're doing."