Amid the industrywide cutbacks, New York Times Digital, the Internet division of The New York Times Co., plans to lay off about 17 percent of its work force, the paper reported in its Sunday edition.
The layoffs will affect 70 of the 400 employees working at the interactive division, The New York Times reported. The cutbacks are expected to be across the board; however, it is unclear when the layoffs would take effect. The move is expected to generate savings of about $6 million for the division.
Most “pure play” dot-coms have been scaling back more drastically — in some cases, upwards of half the work force. However, the Times is only the second major “old-media” concern in four days to plan serious cutbacks. Earlier in the week, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. announced it would cut hundreds of jobs as a result of pulling the plug on its online publishing operations.
Last October, the company withdrew a planned initial public offering of the interactive unit that was expected to raise about $100 million.