Pay Cuts, Furloughs at 'The New York Times'

Gawker reports, and we're hearing independently, that later today The New York Times will unveil a new austerity plan under which employees will be asked to accept 5 percent pay cuts and possibly two-week furloughs in order to avoid another round of layoffs. A meeting with the paper's Newspaper Guild chapter, which represents the Times's unionized staffers, is scheduled for 2:30 this afternoon. Earlier this month, the Guild asked for volunteers willing to take buyout packages so as to prevent planned layoffs in two business-side departments.

A Times spokeswoman wasn't immediately available for comment, and a Guild representative said he wouldn't know anything official until this afternoon's meeting.

Practically every large newspaper has implemented staff reductions over the past 18 months -- most recently, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution announced plans to shrink its newsroom by nearly 30 percent -- and furloughs are also becoming increasingly common. Advance Publications, the parent of Portfolio, is among the publishers to adopt unpaid time off as a cost-saving measure recently.

Update: It looks like the pay cuts and the furloughs are one and the same, according to the official memo informing Times employees of the new measures.