Overall, the Times received 74 newsroom buyout acceptances this week, before the December 7 deadline. That’s just 26 short of the 100-person editorial reduction that management has sought before the end of the year, which means that the paper’s brass will have to make fewer cuts than anticipated. Still, the process is bound to be controversial (even though the paper also reached 42 accepted buyouts on the business side). According to Keith Kelly, the next step is to turn over a list of prospective layoffs to the Newspaper Guild, the paper’s union, for negotiations. The union apparently is likely to squabble over more senior names on the list — but they’ve resolved to reach a consensus by Monday, which means that at least 26 more members of the newsroom will still be having a particularly unhappy holiday season.
