Latest York Times staffers were left fuming after their boss turned a deaf ear at a long-sought sit-down to complaints about the Gray Lady’s decision to disband the sports department, The Post has learned.
In keeping with sources, Times chairman and publisher AG Sulzberger agreed to fulfill with sports journalists on Thursday at company headquarters in Midtown– nearly a month after news leaked he was shuttering its sports division in September and replacing it with coverage from The Athletic, a sports news site it bought last yr for a whopping $550 million.
Times higher-ups had outlined a plan to maneuver the roughly 40 unionized sports journalists to different desks — and depend on The Athletic, which employs about 500 non-unionized staff, for every day coverage.
“Your complete newsroom is outraged at how badly this has been handled and the way poorly the sports staffers have been treated,” a source said.
Staffers at the meeting griped that many journalists have been reassigned to latest beats “haphazardly” without much consultation and that some feel their goals and careers as sports writers have been flushed away by the paper.
“AG was very composed [during the meeting],” an worker told The Post. “He said ‘The Times faced a crossroads years ago and located ways to be progressive.’ He said: ‘We are able to’t be stuck in amber. We are able to’t keep attempting to pursue this one model.’”
“It was a tough message to listen to,” the source added, explaining that when staffers pressed the exec to vow that the paper wouldn’t repeat this strategy of acquiring other sites and replacing its journalists, he declined and as an alternative emphasized to have a look at his “track record.”
“Probably the most recent thing on his track record is he murdered the sports desk,” fumed one other Times worker.
The Times declined to comment. A Guild rep didn’t return requests for comment.
Insiders said the move — which got here two months after Times management negotiated a latest contract with the newspaper’s union, The NewsGuild of Latest York — was a sneaky, low blow that caught employees flat-footed.
The Guild already filed a grievance last month, claiming the paper violated its deal by replacing unionized sports reporters with non-union employees at The Athletic.
After the meeting with Sulzberger, The Guild wrote an indignant email to management demanding one other meeting to “discuss these changes and their impact on our members.”
Staffers had held previous meetings with management, including one contentious powwow with editor in chief Joe Kahn last month.
“Leadership shouldn’t be holding potemkin meetings for 18 months, saying we compete with The Athletic, after which letting us discover via rumor we’re all being replaced,” wrote sports reporter and unit council member Kevin Draper in the memo.
“Everyone is absolutely activated,” a Times worker told The Post, noting that 24 hours before the meeting with Sulzberger, roughly 200 emails from Times journalists flooded the inboxes of masthead editors, criticizing the company’s move.
Nearly all of the emails got here from non-sports journalists, who not only slammed management but additionally questioned the journalistic standards of The Athletic.
The criticism caused Cliff Levy, a longtime Times editor who now’s the deputy publisher of The Athletic, to email those naysayers directly and call them out for questioning the website’s integrity.
One widely-cited email from a Times finance reporter claimed that management has egg on its face from making a foul investment in The Athletic.
The missive claimed management is attempting to do some financial sleight of hand to generate revenue for its “loss-making” subsidiary to appease Wall Street.
A source with knowledge said since The Times’ bought the Athletic, it has seen energetic users grow by 51%. During this time, the site has tripled the variety of individuals with paid access.
Inside The Times, there’s little hope that anything might be done to alter the fortunes of the sports desk.
“What’s pissing everyone off is that they are savaging their very own desk,” an insider concluded. “People have lost confidence in the leadership of the company.”