Scott Heekin-Canedy

At yesterday's Times State of the Newsroom meeting, a staffer asked executive editor Bill Keller if the paper was running out of money. Mr. Keller handed the mic over to New York Times President and General Manager Scott Heekin-Canedy who said, definitively, no.

"We have the ability to pay our debt, we're not concerned about it, we're watching it carefully in these credit markets, our liquidity is sound and our pension funds are fully funded and will be all through 2009 and beyond as far as we can see," he said.

The staffer also asked about an item written by Silicon Alley Insider co-founder Henry Blodget that followed this premise with an argument about the Times Company's financial position:

 

the New York Times (NYT) is approaching the point where it will have to manage its business primarily to conserve cash and avoid defaulting on its debt.  read more »

The New York Times Company has hired "internet professional" Joseph Seibert, formerly an executive at Marc Ecko. Mr. Seibert will become the company's new chief information officer.

He's been its COO since 2006 so he presumably had a role in the Air Force One ad campaign that ad guru Andrew Essex described this way: "As a result of this, Mark Ecko no longer advertises in GQ and Details, my former publications. ... If advertisers can turn themselves into news and content, what is the role of a magazine?"

(And what does that mean for the future of the Times' content?)

Anyway, Mr. Seibert will replace David Thurm, who has been promoted to a new position called senior vice president, operations, which will oversee outside printing, New York production and building operations.  read more »

Is there any circumstance in which the New York Times would feel good about losing readers? Yes!

"This is a result of the strategic decision," wrote Times President Scott Heekin-Canedy in an in-house memo last night. The decline—down 3.5% percent in circulation numbers released on Monday—is suggested to be entirely attributable to replacing "our 'two weeks free' promotion with our traditional 50% offer" and to a price bump back in February.  read more »

The memo goes on to note that the Times beats everyone in the 'key Manhattan market' (is that the same as Manhattan?) and that NYTimes.com is the 'largest' newspaper-owned Web site (which presumably means most-visited). The memo follows.

The New York Times announced this evening, and in tomorrow's paper, a change in format. The paper will consolidate its printing at its College Point facility in Queens, lay off 250 employees, and reduce the trim size of the paper to the size of USA Today.

The process will take two years. In a memo, executive editor Bill Keller said the paper would add pages; the shrinkage of paper would, after the addition of more pages, only result in 5 percent less space in the newspaper. "A narrower paper is in some ways more reader-friendly," Keller wrote.

Keller also speculated that by fighting "flabby or redundant prose in longer pieces" and running more news-digest material, "I could take 5 percent out of any day's paper and actually make it better."

Keller's memo runs to 780 words.  read more »

Full memos follow, from Keller and Times president Scott Heekin-Canedy: