Buyouts taken by some New York Times veterans

Haxorjoe via Wikimedia Commons

Monday was deadline day for New York Times staffers to apply for a generous buyout offer. The paper has until 5 p.m. today to say yes or no, but many already have received approval. Several familiar newsroom names are leaving. Bill Carter, the NYT's longtime television reporter, told Capital New York it was a hard decision but too enticing to pass up. "I love this job and I love The New York Times and I have many close friends here. ... It's really not because I want to work somewhere else," Carter said. "This is a pretty amazing offer for journalists who don't expect to get that kind of severance ever. I felt like I owed it to my family and myself to sort of get a nest egg out of this." The NYT's newspapers and magazines reporter, Christine Haughney, is leaving too. She tweeted the news this morning. David Corcoran, the editor of the weekly Science Times section, is going the buyout route, as is chief financial correspondent Floyd Norris.

Among the others being reported as leaving are several with Los Angeles roots. Former LA Times foreign and national correspondent Barry Bearak has taken a buyout from the sports staff. Former LAT photographer Fred Conrad is on the lists being published. Oops, wrong guy. My mistake. - ed. Edward Wyatt, the former LA bureau correspondent for the New York Times, now in Washington is also said to have applied for the buyout.

Capital New York explains the buyout terms offered:

Packages for members of the Newspaper Guild, a union that represents about 1,100 Times employees, range from 15 weeks of pay and four months' health coverage for employees with between five and six years of service, to double one year's pay, an additional 35 percent of that total and eight months' health coverage for employees with at least 35 years under their belts, according to the Guild.

Non-Guild employees are generally eligible for two weeks of salary per year of service, with the total capped at one year’s salary, according to the Times. Those with 20 years or more also are eligible for an additional cash payout of 35 percent of their total severance.

Longtime employees cost the most to keep around and the terms are geared to inducing more of them to leave. Executives say layoffs will follow if not enough staffers take the buyout.