New York Times

We all know that ad revenue for newspapers is tanking, but apparently it's even worse than we thought. Richard Pérez-Peña is reporting in The Times this morning that newspapers are on pace for their all-time worst ad revenue year. He reports:

Over all, ad revenue fell almost 8 percent last year. This year, it is running about 12 percent below that dismal performance, and company reports issued last week suggested a 14 percent to 15 percent decline in May.

“Never in my most bearish dreams six months ago did I think we’d be talking about negative 15 percent numbers against weak comps,” said Peter S.  read more »

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So Victor Ganzi quit as CEO of Hearst yesterday, and with some shades of Jane Friedman's departure from HarperCollins, no one really knows why.

In The Times, Richard Pérez-Peña writes that "Mr. Ganzi’s fall after six years came as a surprise to executives at Hearst and some of its major joint venture partners, and to investment bankers who track the company closely." Likewise, Keith Kelly reported that it was a "move that stunned many inside and outside the far-flung media empire." And: "I am stunned. I am honestly shocked," said one executive to Kelly.

It is Hearst, a traditionally non-leaky place, so the fact it's a surprise isn't much of a surprise.  read more »

That's what Richard Perez-Pena asks in this morning's Times, and he hears a mixed response.

A former executive at Gannett, Allen Neuharth, says that Zell is just doing what he has to do. In order to prevent newspapers to go the way of the steel industry in the 1980s, preemptive steps have to be made.  read more »

We just got a tip that a man is currently scaling up the north side of the New York Times tower, and he's about half way to the top! 41st Street has completely stopped to a halt, and Times reporters and editors—and construction workers and cops—have spilled onto 8th avenue and 41st Street and are looking up and staring. He has hung up a banner along the building saying something to the effect of: Global Warming Kills.

We'll have updates—and images!—as soon as they come in.

Update, 12:25 PM: City Room has a full account. Apparently the man scaling the building is named Alain Robert, a usual suspect. And C.E.O. Janet Robinson isn't one bit amused! "This is a publicity stunt, it looks like," Janet L. Robinson, the chief executive of The New York Times Company, said as she entered the building. "There is definitely going to be an arrest."

Update, 1PM: Our trusty intern Louise McCready made her way to 41st Street and reports back that all is under control again! Mr. Robert made it to the roof where he was apprehended by police. His neon green banner is still waving from the ninth floor. For the most part, people have stopped gawking, and have returned to work.

One businessman, however, named Bawa Jain still couldn’t contain himself. “Incredible. Impossible. My heart was in my throat! I thought he was going to fall!”

This weekend, Paul Goldberger was on with Bob Garfield on NPR talking about a story he wrote in The New Yorker last year on the design of newsrooms. In the article, Goldberger talked about the cold feel to the Times newsroom, but he elaborated on that with Garfield. He said:  read more »

Jacques Steinberg at The Times poses a question: Did Howie Kurtz do anything wrong when he brought a client of his wife's onto his show? Kurtz's wife, Sheri Annis, did PR work for Kimberly Dozier's memoir, Breathing the Fire, which was the centerpiece of an interview Dozier had with Kurtz on his CNN show, Reliable Sources. Kurtz made a brief disclosure at the end of the show, but even so, is it kosher?  read more »

The New York Times' Eric Konigsberg was hired by the Metro section to write about the lifestyles of the rich. He wrote for magazines like The New Yorker and Rolling Stone before coming on board, and had never had a job at a newspaper. In any event, when he was hired in August 2006 he told Joe Sexton that he'd run to cover a Jersey City fire when duty called. "I told him to bring his track shoes," said Mr. Sexton in a memo announcing the hire back then.  read more »

David Chen, the longtime Trenton reporter for The Times, is replacing Diane Cardwell as the paper's City Hall bureau chief, according to an internal memo. Mr. Chen will join Michael Barbaro and Fernanda Santos in Room 9.

Mr. Chen's departure means there's a vacancy in Trenton, but at this point it's unclear whether the paper has any intention of filling it.  read more »

David Barboza, the Times' business reporter based in Shanghai, has won the paper's internal business award, the Nathaniel Nash Award. The award is named after Mr. Nash, who died in a plane crash in Croatia while on assignment for the Times. With the award, Mr. Barboza gets a check for $1,500!

After the jump, Times Executive Editor Bill Keller's memo to the staff.  read more »

Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and his wife of 33 years, Gail Gregg, are separating. In a statement, they said, "We have made the difficult decision to separate after 33 years of marriage. We are fortunate to have the love and support of our two children, other family members and close friends and colleagues. This is a private matter and we will not discuss it further.”  read more »

A day after the Times announced that there will be layoffs--perhaps around 15--the paper has picked up a star: Charlie Savage, a Pulitzer-winner on his coverage of Bush-Cheney White House, is moving to Dean Baquet's Washington bureau.

On Monday, MSNBC kicked off The New York Times Special Primary Edition, a new irregularly recurring daytime political show hosted by John Harwood in which Times scribes chew over news from the campaign trail.

So how did the show's premier do?

Not great!

According to Nielsen data, "The New York Times Special Primary Edition," finished fourth among cable news networks in the 2 P.M. time slot.  read more »

There will be layoffs at The Times. In an emotionally charged memo, Bill Keller writes that the vast majority of the 100 newsroom job cuts he announced back in February will come through buyouts, but the paper is "forced to resort" to laying the rest off. He said the paper will not disclose numbers or names in this "usettling and dispiriting time."

In the memo, he vehemently thanks reporters and editors at the paper for their service, as well as the Sulzbergers, and then says, "it is time to regroup."

He writes:

Most important, we retain the strongest team of talented journalists in the business, and they—you—remain the key to all of our ambitions.

Now it is time to regroup and move forward. In the coming weeks we will be working with department heads to reorganize and reimagine our coverage to ensure the quality journalism that is our standard. When we met in the Times Center in February, I told you that we were facing two seemingly contradictory challenges in the coming year. On the one hand, we must reduce our staffing and costs. On the other hand, we must do whatever we can to strengthen our competitive position. As I said then, that will mean our staff cuts will be offset a little by some investments to ensure, among other things, that we are well equipped to navigate the passage to our digital future.

Entire memo after the jump ...  read more »

The Times and MSNBC are joining forces for a new cable show. Today is the debut of The New York Times Special Primary Edition, a new political show hosted by John Harwood where Times-journos will handicap the election. From a Times memo, it appers these shows will appear as specials--that is, they won't run every week, but whenever MSNBC and the paper choose to do it.

Today's program will preview the Indiana and North Carolina primaries and Adam Nagourney, Pat Healy and Gail Collins are included guests.

Here's the memo:  read more »

One year after the New York Times moved into its shimmering new tower, the paper is ready for a dramatic software upgrade. Welcome to Microsoft Office 2003! The brand newish software was installed in the third-floor newsroom last night, and the culture department on the fourth floor is on-deck for tonight. The Times is also finally abandoning the old Eudora e-mail system for the mysterious but apparently very reliable "Outlook" e-mail. Memo, sent last night, after the jump:  read more »

There's some movement on the local political beat!  read more »

This morning, the New York Times announced the recipients of their 2007 Punch Awards. The awards, named after the nickname of former Times honcho Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, have two categories: "journalistic or editorial excellence" in community service and "business accomplishments."  read more »

The Post's Keith Kelly hears that 70 Times staffers are going to take buyouts, which means that about 30 are on the chopping block and it'll be Joe Sexton's Metro team that'll take the brunt of the hit.  read more »

Times metro-staffers were sent a sorta friendly-not friendly reminder this week that they work at a newspaper, and as such, shouldn't be spending too much money on lunch. Apparently, lunches with sources lately "have gotten stuck on posh." So there are new spending restrictions and a suggestion of also eating in their "zippy new cafeteria!"

Other problems: some metro staffers appear to be guilty of filing expenses for things like water and Cheez-its while they're still in the city (that reminds us of Jayson Blair!) Also some of them are filing expenses without receipts! Also, they should take the subway.

Full memo after the jump.  read more »

Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., who is speaking right now at the Times Building for the paper's annual shareholders meeting, declared the newspaper is not for sale. Choire Sicha sends in this dispatch, via text:

Sulzberger: "This company is not for sale." Media reports are "ill-informed."

Newsday, which is close to being sold to Rupert Murdoch, is "our closest competitor" on the web.

The Times copy chief Merrill Perlman is on the buyout list, said a newsroom source. Apparently, she's making her way around the newsroom today to announce her departure. Ms. Perlman has been an institution at the paper for nearly 25 years, and was one of the biggest voices in helping finish up the most recent version of New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. Why doesn't the paper use the serial comma? She explains here.  read more »

New York Times CEO Janet Robinson in today's conference call:

From a standpoint of coverage, I think it's clear The Wall Street Journal is positioning quite differently in terms of overall coverage, broadening very much in the international and political arena, and, with the launch of their magazine, entering into broader lifestyle coverage.  read more »

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Barry Bearak is on his way home. Here's the statement from Bill Keller, sent to us through the Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis:

Barry's family, friends and colleagues are overjoyed that the court threw out the preposterous charges against him, and that he is on his way home. His only offense was honest journalism, telling Zimbabwe's story at a time of tormented transition. He had no intention of becoming part of that story.  read more »

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The New York Times announced that it's all but a done deal that the paper will have to layoff staffers in the newsroom.

The drop-dead deadline is fast approaching for the staffers in The New York Times newsroom to raise their hand and volunteer for a buyout. An internal memo from the paper's assistant managing editor, Bill Schmidt, just went out and said that "we expect" that the buyout numbers aren't looking good and that for the first time the paper will be forced to cut the newsroom through layoffs.

"While layoffs have become all too common across our industry, this is the first time the newsroom as a whole has confronted that blunt reality, and we approach it with a heavy heart," he said in the e-mail.

The entire memo is below:  read more »

The old online editor at Portfolio, Chris Jones, is joining the digital side of nytimes.com. The last time we heard from Mr. Jones, he was fleeing the increasingly encroaching presence of the business side at portfolio.com.  read more »

Andy Jacobs, the Times reporter who covered Cory Booker and Manhattan night clubs, is in Beijing. Today, his China-based dateline is his first. "I’m going to be in the bureau there," said Mr. Jacobs to Media Mob, shortly before he left.  read more »

Jane Gross, a Times-lifer, is taking a buyout. And per her brother's blog (the writer Michael Gross), she's a pioneer! He writes:

She was the first woman reporter ever in an NBA locker room while she was at Newsday; broke the story of the existence of crack; was one of the earliest reporters on the AIDS beat, and in that capacity was the first person to use the term anal sex in the Times (now there’s something to be be proud of).  read more »

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The New York Times under executive editor Bill Keller still has fewer Pulitzer victories to its credit than during the short-lived reign of his predecessor, Howell Raines.

Under Raines, who served approximately 21 months before resigning in 2003 in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal, the paper's news pages published seven Pulitzer-winning entries.

In more than twice that span of time—53 Pulitzer-eligible months as executive editor—Keller has published six Pulitzer winners.  read more »

Yesterday, the Pulitzer Prize administrator, Sig Gissler, told a group of reporters, "The old cliché is that when you win a Pulitzer, the first line of your obituary has been written." Yes, but what if you win three?  read more »

The Times reports that Barry Bearak has been released from a prison in Zimbabwe after making bail.  read more »

For the first time in decades, The New York Times has a new Supreme Court reporter.

Adam Liptak, the Times' national legal reporter, is taking over the position Linda Greenhouse—who covered the beat, off and on, for 30 years—vacated in February after taking a $300,000 buyout. Before Mr. Liptak was a reporter, he was a lawyer for the paper. He joined the newsroom in 2002.

Here's the memo from Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet:  read more »

The Troopergate report (pdf) that came out on Friday has some great back-room gossip between Eliot Spitzer and one of his top aides, Rich Baum, about a Times story.  read more »

Dith Pran, the New York Times photographer whose disappearance and escape from the clutches of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia was famously chronicled in the movie The Killing Fields, died today in New Jersey. He was 65.  read more »

That big Apple ad on nytimes.com is back today! Which is odd. Last Friday that ad appeared as well, which means that's two weeks in a row that Apple has taken over the Times home page.

Back in January, Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis told us that Arthur Sulzberger Jr. had instituted "new rules" regarding ads like that and decided those would be limited to once a month.  read more »

For some weeks now, New York Times editors have been pinch-hitting in the role of weekend editor, ever since the paper announced Marty Gottlieb was moving on in a role to help work out the paper's relationship with the IHT.

Now they've got their full-time replacement: Alison Mitchell. She's been promoted to associate managing editor. (We've sent out an e-mail to a spokeswoman to find out if that means she'll be on the masthead. We'll update you when we find out.)

For now, here's the memo:  read more »

Did a recent Times story borrow from a 14-month-old Newsweek story on the Buenos Aires party scene?

Fishbowl NY, which links to an Argentinan blog which makes the original case, passes no judgment but presents the blog's case.  read more »

What tactics might new governor David Paterson take in dealing with the media when they ask questions about his personal life, I asked Ken Sunshine, the public relations man who is friendly with both Paterson and former governor Eliot Spitzer, late last week.

"I think he should tell the press to go fuck themselves when they ask things that are inappropriate," he said. "Of course, I don't think he should follow that advice. You should delve into the lives of politicians at the same level you delve into the lives of press people."

But already, resulting in what was either a full disclosure or a limited hangout or a modified limited hangout, Paterson and his wife were conducting interviews with Juan Gonzalez of the New York Daily News. Meeting since Saturday, the couple carefully disclosed news of years-old mutual extramarital affairs.  read more »

The city is safer and the Times is closer to Port Authority. For these reasons, and the fact the paper needs to "reduce spending," there won't be a direct shuttle from the Times Building to Grand Central and Penn Station anymore. Here's the memo:  read more »

Romenesko has a memo from the Guild that says the deadline to apply for a Times buyout has been extended from yesterday to March 7. That's because other than a few high-profile volunteers--Linda Greenhouse, David Cay Johnston--there haven't been nearly enough applicants.  read more »

Yesterday, The New York Times asked what the publishing industry—and the paper itself—could have done to have fact-checked a fradulent story produced by Margaret Seltzer that made its way into a book, and to the pages of the paper itself in a profile.  read more »

It’s deadline day for buyouts at The Times!

And joining Pulitzer winner Linda Greenhouse on the payout line, is Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston, who has submitted an application to volunteer for a buyout (Media Mob needs to qualify because technically the paper has the final say and will be reviewing applications for the next 45 days).  read more »

The New York Times City Room writer Jenny 8. Lee's book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, was released today. She'll be touring the city--KGB Bar, the 82nd Street Barnes & Noble--over the next week or so to get word out. And she's gonna be on Colbert too. Here's the mass e-mail that she just sent out (which seems to have made its way to the entire city based on the amount of times it's been forwarded to me over the last few minutes):  read more »

New York Times publisher Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr. is not having a bright and shiny day. For one thing, the newspaper's buccaneer shareholder Harbinger Capital increased its pressure on the Sulzberger family's company by formally nominating its own four candidates to the paper's board of directors.

But in Manhattan, boardrooms aren't nearly as important as duplex co-ops. According to a deed filed in city records this afternoon, Mr. Sulzberger transferred ownership of his family's A-line duplex to his wife, the artist Gail Gregg, for $3,255,721. The apartment is in Harperley Hall, a stately pre-war co-op at 64th Street and Central Park West.  read more »

The continuing battle between The New York Times and the paper's Guild over its health-benefit fund just got a lot more intense.

Quick recap: The Guild's health benefits fund is going bankrupt—they're expecting it to run out by the end of the year—and they're negotiating with the paper over how it can help out. According to the paper's assistant managing editor, William Schmdit, talks have "foundered." The Guild wasn't one bit happy about that assessment and they squarely blame his side. (It should be noted that this has nothing to do with the 100 job cuts that we've been talking about over the last two weeks.).

The memos—and the drama!—follow:  read more »

Meanwhile, more job cut news, this time back on Eighth Avenue!

Bill Keller sent out a memo this afternoon digging through some bad news. He said that Times staffers have until March 5 to voluntarily accept a buyout so that they can ease their way into retirement (which is exactly what Linda Greenhouse is doing with her $300,000 buyout) or to "reimagne" a new career outside the newsroom.  read more »

Tara Parker-Pope, who blogs about health and writes a health column for The New York Times, has sold an advice book on healthy marriages to Dutton, Publisher's Weekly reports.  read more »

Yesterday, Media Mob heard from several Times staffers about the Fox News trucks set up outside the Times building. Even though there's presumably less reason to have B-roll of the tower today, the Fox News trucks—and a weather-resistant canopy to protect cameras and reporters—are still there! So we sent trusty intern Matthew Townsend to the scene. Here's what he found out:  read more »

The City Room made its way into the print pages of the New York Times today, landing in a slot on B2 in the Metro Section. A note on the web site today said that City Room will have a dedicated print slot every Friday, which will include stories--today one from Jenny 8. Lee--and readers' comments that appeared on the web site.  read more »

David Brooks writes in the Times today that McCain supporters are trying to figure out who the plausible candidates for the anonymous sources in yesterday's story could be.

Just as a refresher, we decided to call the paper's standards editor, Craig Whitney, to ask what the Times rules are on a related issue: Can a person give both an on-the-record quote and appear in the same story as an unnamed source? The answer is yes, but as long as the messages aren't contradictory. Whitney said:  read more »