Jim, mods, cut as you see fit, it's all important to me for sharing:

http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13313

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Topic: Memos Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 5/7/2008 11:32:58 AM
Title: New York Times memo on layoffs
Posted By: Jim Romenesko

From: Bill Keller/NYT/NYTIMES
Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 07:21:47
To: [New York Times newsroom]
Subject: A Message to the Staff from Bill Keller

Colleagues:

A little over two months ago, I told you that we would have to reduce staff within the newsroom by roughly 100 jobs given the difficult financial challenges facing our business and the deteriorating national economy.

Our hope, as you know, was that we could trim our payroll by encouraging enough volunteers to accept buyout offers. While the overwhelming majority of our reductions did indeed come from volunteers, we have been forced to resort to a relatively small numbers of layoffs to meet our assigned goal. (We are not going to discuss numbers or the details of the staff reduction, nor will we be releasing a list of nam.at should carry them to other endeavors or to retirement, but that will not eliminate their sense of loss, or ours.

These past few weeks have been difficult for all of us, as we say goodbye to many longtime colleagues who have elected to leave. Others, who raised their hands for buyouts more recently, will be departing in the coming weeks. A few of those who sought buyouts will stay on longer, to help us through the demands of a year when we must cover both the Olympics in China and a national election campaign. We've had farewell toasts, and will have more.for friends and colleagues whose knowledge and dedication we will miss. We know this time has been unsettling and dispiriting..