New York Times staff in Paris have launched a last ditch attempt to save an editorial operation in the city that stretches back to the 19th century.
The NYT told staff in April it was cutting 69 out of about 110 posts in Paris, where the original Paris Herald – later the International Herald Tribune and the International New York Times – has been based since 1887.
The proposal suggests keeping about half of the editorial jobs the company wants to axe, while making up some of the cuts in London, New York and Hong Kong.
Though the company plans to continue printing the international edition, it is understood that only advertising and admin roles, as well as the NYT’s separate small Paris bureau, will be retained in the city with a handful of jobs moved to London, Hong Kong or New York.
A person close to the negotiations said the proposal was not just about protecting job cuts in Paris, but preserving the sensibility of the newspaper.
He said: “We proposed a plan in which the newspaper would be still put out from Paris, but with a dramatically reduced number of employees, so to make it work out numbers wise, so we also proposed management consider reducing staff in our other offices in Hong Kong and London.
“It’ll still be a bloodbath [but] Europe and the continent are not the same as Britain, they are not the same as New York, they are not the same as Hong Kong.
“We are not doing this just to save jobs. We are doing this to save the same sensibility this paper has had for 130 years.”
The NYT recently unveiled a $50m global expansion plan, but it is understood that most of the jobs will be aimed at making the content produced in New York more accessible to a global audience.
Jonathan Freed, a former union representative at the Paris operation who left in September after 32 years working for the NYT, said it had been clear for four or five years that management planned to close the office, with warning signs including a lack of digital training for staff based there.
“Over time it became clear that the Times did not want to work in Paris any more,” he said. “They opened the office in London and said if you want to have a career path then you need to move to London.
“My understanding is that basically nobody is now being given the chance to move to London, they’re being told that’s it. It’s just a bloodbath.”
An NYT spokeswoman said the company would not discuss ongoing negotiations, adding: “As we’ve said before, the IHT proposal to reorganise its Paris operations is about enabling that office to continue to play a meaningful role as the New York Times Company increases its efforts to reach international digital and print audiences.”