Retrenching at the 'Times'

Starting next week, The New York Times (NYT) is going to look a lot different.

A variety of expected cost-cutting measures will kick in beginning next Tuesday, according to a memo executive editor Bill Keller sent out earlier Thursday morning. (Gawker and the Observer have both posted the full memo.) The first thing to go will be the two-page new index in the A section, which was only introduced a year ago.

After that will come the disappearance of the City and Escapes sections; the latter will be absorbed into the Friday Weekend section, while the former will become part of a new Sunday Metro section that will also incorporate what used to be the regional sections. The Sunday magazine is getting a slim-down as well: It will no longer feature fashion spreads.

Says Keller:

The hope and expectation remain that the pay cuts and the spending cuts outlined above will get us through the year without the need for other significant reductions. As I have said on past occasions, there is nothing sacrosanct about the current size of the newsroom, but if the day comes when we decide to undertake a cut in the staff it should be driven not by the temporary crisis of a recession, but by a careful calculation of our long-term priorities.