The Actual NY Times Internal Memo on Pay Cuts

May 5, 2009

The New York Times Media Group

Dear Colleagues,

Now that those of you in The Guild have voted to accept the 5% reduction of
salaries for the remainder of the year, we wanted to take this opportunity
to thank everyone for their sacrifice. We know this is a very difficult
period, yet you have once again demonstrated your steadfast commitment to
The New York Times, to quality journalism and to the millions of readers in
this country and internationally who depend on what we have to say in our
newspaper and on NYTimes.com.

We had to take this step because of the unparalleled drop in advertising
revenues that we have suffered within the first quarter of 2009. As you
know, this is only one of a number of actions that we are taking to ensure
that we have sufficient resources to adhere to The New York Times's high
standards.

Getting this far required us to come together — news and business, print
and digital, management and union — to deal with the many challenges we
faced. We wish we could tell you when things will get better, but we
cannot. What we can say with confidence is that by supporting the larger
goals of our organization and each other, we will get through this period
and we will provide our audiences with the best news and information
available.

Sincerely,

Arthur, Scott, Bill, Martin and Andy