Bill Keller

And the memos just keep on coming. Here's Bill Keller's statement to the staff of The New York Times about the consolidation of Metro and Sports:

To the Staff:
As you've learned from Arthur's message, beginning next month the paper will be reconfigured. Metro news will appear in the A-book along with International and National news. Sports will be combined with Bizday, except on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, when we will offer freestanding sports sections. I just want to elaborate a little on what this means for the newsroom.

The aim, of course, is to save money -- and, importantly, to do it without cutting back coverage.

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Media Mob has learned that The New York Times will make an announcement later today that it plans to cut the number of sections it has in the paper during some days of the week and it will fold in the Metro Section and Sports section into other sections of the newspaper.

According to newsroom sources, the Metro Section is moving into the A-section and the Sports section will move into the Business section for some portion of the week.

The move is being made to save money on printing. According to one newsroom source, neither metro editor Joe Sexton nor sports editor Tom Jolly was "thrilled with the decision, but they understood.  read more »

It's not every Sunday that you pick up The New York Times and find Bill Keller's byline all over the paper. And, according to Mr. Keller, there might be a Sunday someday soon when there won't even be a paper for him to write in.

Stealing a page from the David Remnick playbook, Mr. Keller decided to drop his editor's cap and rewind back to the good old days when he was a senior writer pointing his critical eye to far-off places. In yesterday's Times, Mr. Keller's byline appeared on the cover of Week in Review and Book Review sections for articles about the  read more »

Bill Schmidt, an assistant managing editor and 27-year New York Times veteran, is moving to the International Herald Tribune to become the paper's "Editor, Global editions."

Mr. Schmidt is the administration-man of the Times newsroom—the one who sends out emails reminding reporters to file their expenses—and he'll have a similar, if expanded, role at The Times' sister publication. Bill Keller writes in a memo, "He will be, in effect, the chief operating officer of the Trib newsroom, the principle liaison with the publisher and with the Executive Editor of The Times."

Memo after the jump:  read more »

Are the deadlines at The New York Times about to change?

Moments ago, a big-bylined memo from Keller-Abramson-Landman-Geddes went out staff-wide to reporters and editors saying that, essentially, to make it easier on the digital side, copy flow at the paper needs to change.

They compare their current system to “an old-fashioned electrical utility.”

Too much copy is dumped at the same time, and the digital-side people have not a lot of time to deal with it all. No conclusions have been reached, though! So it’s time for the Times to do what they do best: setup a big committee to talk about it.

Susan Edgerley will lead, and deputies will help. Decisions will come in the “months to come.”

Full memo after the jump.  read more »

The Times has no official anonymous sourcing rules—no "two source rule" or anything like that—but they do often pass around internal documents to serve as guidelines. The paper's public editor, Clark Hoyt, recently recruited some Columbia J-school students and had them take some sample papers from 2004—when Al Siegal and Bill Keller last sent out an anonymous source guideline sheet—and compare them to 2007, and they found that anonymous sources had basically dropped by half at the paper.

But reporters shouldn't feel afraid to use them! Mr. Keller sent out a "refresher course" memo last night. There are helpful tips like: "There is, on the face of it, something ludicrous about a government or corporate "spokesman" insisting on not being identified by name; we should push such sources to speak for attribution."  read more »

Longtime editor Jim Roberts is being given the title "associate managing editor" and will be added to the Times masthead. He works with Jon Landman on the digital side and his duties remain exactly the same. Here's the memo from Keller and Landman:  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 »

The Media Mob has learned that longtime New York Times editor Mike Oreskes is leaving the company for the Associated Press.

Mr. Oreskes, who is currently the editor of the Times-owned International Herald Tribune, has been working in one capacity or another under the Times umbrella for the past 27 years. Before he took his position as executive editor of IHT in 2005, he was the deputy managing editor of The Times for Bill Keller, and an assistant managing editor under Howell Raines before that.

At the AP, he'll become the managing editor of the wire service's U.S. News department, a newly created department there.

Update! AP has confirmed our report with a press release. Follow the jump to read it ...  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 »

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 »

At a little after 3 p.m. on Monday, April 7, New York Times executive editor Bill Keller grabbed a microphone and took to a landing on one of the floating red-walled staircases that climb up into his brand-new newsroom’s skylit clerestory. It was Pulitzer day, and the first time this kind of stand-up-in-the-newsroom ceremony was being observed in the new Renzo Piano-designed tower the newspaper moved into last May.  read more »

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 »

Barry Bearak is still in jail. Top officials in Zimbabwe agreed the case against him was groundless, but according to Bill Keller, the state's lawyers overruled them and he'll remain in prison for a second night.

Here is Bill Keller's statement, sent to us through a Times spokeswoman, Catherine Mathis:  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 »

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 »

Bill Keller sent out a 384-word memo this morning announcing that William Grimes will become the new obit writer for the paper.

Here's the memo:

To the Staff:

There are some bylines that are, by general acclamation, must reads. William Grimes is one. No matter the subject, no matter the headline, Biff’s name atop a column of type is enough to encourage a reader to take the plunge. It’s a byline that carries a signature, a blend (or call it a cocktail — Biff wrote a book about drinks) of gentle wit, graceful style
and wide-ranging erudition.  read more »

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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 »

For all the clumsiness of the McCain press folks over the past 30 hours since The New York Times published their story about their candidate's ties to a lobbyist, they scored at least one direct hit—a talking point that has appealed to and happily been dispersed by the self-involved press.

But first, the idiocy!  read more »

The New Republic exegesis on the internal divisions at the Times is up. The story is a walking chronology of what happened. Here's what we learned:

• The story began with a tip that Jim Rutenberg received in November, 2007.
• Washington chief Dean Baquet assigned Stephen Labaton and Marilyn Thompson to the assignment; David Kirkpatrick later joined in.
• John McCain made his phone call to Bill Keller in "early December."

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Bill Keller has issued this statement on the John McCain story:

On the substance, we think the story speaks for itself. On the timing, our policy is, we publish stories when they are ready.

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So that Times story about John McCain, the one the world heard about in December, was published last night.

In a nutshell:  read more »

At yesterday's series of regular all-staff meetings convened by New York Times executive editor Bill Keller (you know, the one where he announced that between 100 and 150 newsroom employees might be eliminated!), other ways of cutting the newsroom payroll were also discussed, according to two sources, including one senior newsroom source.

Staff were told that the newspaper would consider eliminating bonuses for top editors, section heads, deputies and some of the line editors (which would not include copy editors) to cut costs without elminating newsroom jobs,

One source also said that Keller talked about the possibility of eliminating a masthead-level job. There are currently 13 masthead editors, excluding the editorial page editors.  read more »

It took Bill Keller about five minutes at his "Throw Stuff at Bill" meeting at the Times Center to announce the bad news. He told the group gathered that there would be about 100 newsroom cuts through a combination of attrition and buyouts; he also cautioned there was a "real clear" possibility of layoffs, according to two people present.  read more »

Jeff Bercovici is reporting that Bill Keller told staff today that the paper is cutting 100 newsroom positions. Bercovici writes:  read more »

The teeth-chattering classes over at the new Times building are packing extra sweaters this morning after getting an email from executive editor Bill Keller about how cold the newsroom (or parts of it!) are during the present cold snap.

It seems that the elevator shafts and loading docks in the state-of-the-art Renzo-Piano designed building are funnelling cold air into the offices; and a long-term fix doesn't look too near.

Click "read more" to see the memo.  read more »

Speaking after a recent speech, Bill Keller assessed new rival Rupert Murdoch as a combative and unpredictable tabloid guy.

As reported by The Guardian, Mr. Keller said:

I don't really know what he is going to do ... I don't know Rupert Murdoch, he is a combative 76-year-old newspaper guy with a tabloid soul and more money than God.

With those resources at this stage it looks like he will do whatever the hell he wants to do. I don't think he is going to be constrained by some strategic planning consultant telling him what he can do. That makes him very hard to predict.

Bill Keller spoke in England earlier this week about the sad state of the American newspaper business. Topics included the "acid rain" of criticisms heaped upon The New York Times, the "press-phobic" Bush administration, and the newpaper-eating internet.

"Most of the blog world does not even attempt to report," Mr. Keller said. "It recycles. It riffs on the news. That's not bad. Its just not enough. Not nearly enough."  read more »

Bill Keller announced moments ago in a memo that there will be layoffs at The New York Times. He wrote that it will not affect reporters, but a hiring freeze will be strictly enforced.

He wrote:

While we are committed to retaining our competitive muscle, we will be facing some tough choices about where to save. That is why I must tell you that there are going to be layoffs in the newsroom, for the first time in recent memory. The people who are affected are not journalists, but that does not make this news anyeasier to share.

A dozen positions will be eliminated immediately, including "a number of clerical and secretarial jobs" and management positions in administrative areas.

For the newsroom: "But as many of you know, we put into place a hiring freeze several weeks ago, and except for those jobs that are critically important to our future ambitions, we intend to enforce it. As journalists resign or retire from the Company next year, we will be trying to fill their positions internally."

There is also a suggestion that The Times could cut space in their new office building.  Mr. Keller wrote "we will be rethinking coverage priorities and how we use our space and our people..."

Full memo after the jump.  read more »

At the "glittering" celebration for the opening of the Times building on Monday, publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. gave a speech in which he thanked advertisers and the building's architect, Renzo Piano.

Mr. Sulzberger did not, however, mention Bill Keller, The Times' executive editor -- or any other specific person on the paper's editorial staff -- in his speech, according to a person present. Instead he thanked the newsroom sort of generally.

In a way, that omission was fitting, since many members of the newsroom peered down during his speech from their second- and third-floor office windows with their hands and faces pressed against glass, said the source. With the exception of a few stars, the newsroom was shut out from the event.

With dwindling reserves, the Newspaper Guild finds leverage in a management filing mistake.  read more »

New York Times editor-in-chief Bill Keller went to tour Iowa on Thursday and returned yesterday. On Monday, Times political reporter Adam Nagourney emailed Media Mob about the trip...  read more »

The news raises a question: Does the decision to hire Susan Dominus to write a column suggest that the paper is looking to take the section in a different direction—something closer to Metro Styles?  read more »

In a phone interview on Friday, New York Times managing editor Jill Abramson said that the paper's editor-in-chief Bill Keller was traveling in Iowa with political reporter Adam Nagourney. During the trip, he'd meet candidates and get a flavor of the presidential race this year. Mr. Keller left on Thursday and he'll be back on Tuesday, Ms. Abramson said.  read more »

In the Times’s new online book club, Reading Room, participants (including author Francine Prose, and frequent Book Review contributor Liesl Schillinger) and moderator/Book Review editor Sam Tanenhaus are debating a new translation of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Another participant is Times executive editor Bill Keller, whose thoughts on the novel seemed not irrelevant to how he perceives the paper and his role there—and reveals more than a little bit about his personality.

“Somehow I managed to make it through college and into late middle age without having read War and Peace… W&P was always too intimidating in scale, and too show-offy to bring to the beach.”  read more »

Rupert has seen the future: it’s insurgent Journal vs. ‘monolithic media.’  read more »

“Other than if you put a ruler on the paper and measure it, I’m kind of hoping it will not be that noticeable,” said Tom Bodkin, design director for The New York Times.  read more »

‘The New York Times always maintains a strict separation between its news report and its business interests,’ Gray Lady asserts.  read more »

Today, a Times internal memo outlined some of the changes taking place this August, when newspaper will be 1.5 inches narrower. See below for more on that reduced news hole coming soon. No worries though, since there's plenty of space in the brand new City Room.

To: Newsroom
From: John MacLeod, Terry Schwadron
Subject: Narrowing the size of the newspaper page

The editions of The Times for Monday, Aug. 6 will be the first with new, narrower page dimensions. The printed page will be the same depth, but an inch and a half narrower.

To account for the changes, those in Design and News Technology have been working with colleagues in Advertising, Ad Makeup, Systems, those involved in page transmission and the printing plants to align all of the intent and coding necessary. Basically, a large number of press mechanics will changeover prepared presses at College Point, Edison and national plants on Sunday to be able to print at the new size.

There are few design changes that will be obvious to the reader, except for the overall page dimensions. There are the same number of columns per page with the exception of a slight adjustment to body type, for example. At other papers that have changed size, readers seem to have reacted positively.

Over the next weeks, page designers in the individual sections will be working with departments to produce trial pages that will give editors a feel for any adjustments. The new coding is all available in CCI.

Narrower columns mean either slightly smaller or slightly squarer photos, but for most readers. For editors, the main change will be fewer words per column and slightly tight one-column headlines are tighter. One consequence is somewhat shorter dress page runs.

A dress page column now with headline and blurb might be 720 words; without a jump, the equivalent column will be about 50-60 words shorter. While Bill Keller has been asking overall for shorter stories, the start of the narrow-measure paper will reduce specific news holes.

Page designers are working out samples to share with individual sections. Merrill Perlman is working with News Technology on a guidance sheet for copy editors.

With the start of this project looming, it seems a good time to ask all to think anew about how the measures may alter story lengths or layouts.

Feel free to ask John or Terry for details.  read more »

Several New York Times staffers have already headed over to the Tower at 620 8th Avenue, including the Editorial page. And the newsroom moves in the next week! (It's got to be all done by June 18th).

Today, a memo went out with the list of departments by floor, so reporters won't get confused in that shiny new building.

2nd floor: Business, Database Reporting, Escapes/Travel, Graphics, Investigative, News Surveys, Science, Sports, Week in Review

3rd floor: City Weekly, Clerical, Continuous News, Education, Foreign, Metro, National, News Admin, News Design, News Desk, News Executives, Obits, Regional Editions

4th floor: Arts & Leisure, Culture, Dining/Home, Picture Desk, Politics, Real Estate, Special Sections, Style, TV Studio

5th floor: Book Review, Library/Research, News Technology

6th floor: Magazine

7th floor: Magazine, News Art

Editorial was not mentioned in the email, but they'll be upstairs, on 13. And then farther up is Arthur Sulzberger Jr. himself, on the 16th floor.

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So it's the waning days at 229 West 43rd Street and Times folk are finally ready to party! Last night, executive editor Bill Keller sent out an email to the newsroom regarding the farewell event at the old headquarters.

The final bash will take place on June 21 at 7 p.m., on the building's 3rd floor. "Music, beer and soft drinks provided," according to the invite. However, it's strictly BYO when it comes to food and wine, it read.

And since staffers are allowed one guest, the Media Mob will now happily entertain plus one offers.  read more »

Jill Abramson was in a traffic accident this morning. Bill Keller sent a memo to the newsroom explaining what happened. Here it is:

Colleagues,
Jill Abramson was involved in a traffic accident this morning, and is in the emergency ward at Bellevue Hospital. She is conscious (in fact, she managed to be both funny and stoic through her morphine haze, so the essential Jill seems to be intact) but she has a badly broken leg and is being checked for other injuries. Her husband, Henry Griggs, is standing guard. We'll keep you posted.
Bill

Earlier this year, New York Times executive editor Bill Keller wondered publicly whether it was worth it to maintain an ombudsman position at the newspaper.

Barney Calame had the job at the time—which involves writing a column for the paper that reports on The Times’ own reporting, addressing criticisms from the outside—in a two-year appointment that followed the appointment of Daniel Okrent, the public editor hired after the Jayson Blair scandal forced the Times to take public steps to shore up its credibility.  read more »

The New York Times launched its glossy Play magazine in February 2006 as a quarterly showcase for detailed, meticulously researched, carefully crafted narratives about sports.

Last week, for fans with less patience, the magazine went into a hurry-up offense: Play is now also a weekly e-mail newsletter.  read more »

The New York Times has named Clark Hoyt, a former editor for Knight Ridder, as its new Public Editor.

The memo from Bill Keller is after the jump.  read more »