Times chief warns of more Globe cuts

By Bloomberg News  |  June 26, 2009

NEW YORK - The chairman of The New York Times Co., Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr., said yesterday that the company’s Boston Globe will probably need more cost reductions - on top of the $10 million in wage and benefit cuts its largest union is already considering.

“There will be still more to come,’’ Sulzberger said in a memo to employees co-written by chief executive Janet Robinson. “The Globe is on a path to a more secure financial future.’’

The Globe’s largest union is set to vote on a new contract next month that would cut wages by 5.9 percent, compared with an 8.4 percent decrease in a previous proposal the Boston Newspaper Guild rejected. The Times Co. slashed Guild wages 23 percent on June 14.

The company has asked unions for wage and benefit cuts to help save $20 million in total, half of it from the Guild, which represents roughly 700 newsroom, advertising, and other workers.

The Times Co. has said the newspaper would lose $85 million this year, on an operating basis.

The company has consolidated printing operations in Boston for a savings of $18 million, cut salaries for nonunion Globe workers, and raised newsstand and home-delivery prices, Sulzberger and Robinson noted.

Guild members will vote July 20 on the proposed contract, which also includes unpaid days off and the elimination of health coverage for retirees over 65.