New York Times Struggles With Leadership After Janet Robinson's Departure

Add a leadership gap to the New York Times' woes. Janet Robinson's departure has left the paper without a CEO, as it continues to struggle with revenue declines and pressure from family members to improve the company's stock value.

Bloomberg reports that Robinson was reportedly pushed out of her role by publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and his cousin Michael Golden, according to a source familiar with the situation. News of Robinson's departure was first reported in December. The paper had seen declines in advertising and circulation, as did the rest of the newspaper industry, during her tenure.

The company is looking for a non-family member to fill the CEO role, according to two people familiar with the matter. That report contradicts speculation that Golden, who is currently the chief operating officer, would fill Robinson's spot. Golden recently lost a part of his responsibilities with the sale of the Times' regional newspaper group.

The two sources also said that Robinson's severage package, which includes a $4.5 million consulting fee, would total $21 million -- higher than the $15 million estimate put forth by previous reports. The news is sure to rankle union employees at the Times. The Newspaper Guild and a union representing workers who prepare the paper for delivery both blasted the hefty consulting fee in December.

Comments

[bikerdude]

03:33 AM on 01/31/2012

That neptoism thing come up and bite you again? Golden and Pinch the golden boys of incompetence.

[yahooserious]

10:29 PM on 01/30/2012

If they'll pay me one of them golden parachute things and a jet so I can go everywhere I want any time I want I'll be their CEO.. I'm sure I'd do just as good a job as any of the other applicants.

[vor26cma]

10:15 PM on 01/30/2012

First of all stop paying these huge salaries and severance packages for mediocre performance. Direct your money towards journalism. The Washington Post also has the same problem, declining readership and declining revenue.

Look at three newspapers and what you get for news is more often than not is the same information, the same stories. There is very original product coming out of these struggling papers.
The need to spend money for intelligent, relevant, and original material not just links to the same stuff we can pick up from ten other sources.
There was a time these newspapers had a staff of reporters doing original work but now they outsource and pass the same stuff around. That is not going to do it. Good bye so long fair well.

[xhawk2]

08:35 AM on 01/30/2012

Hasn't the New York Times struggled since the whole Jayson Blair thing?

[bikerdude]

03:36 AM on 01/31/2012

Ever since Punch retired, actually... They ran off some of their best talent and now sit with the family controlling the board and absolutely NO talent left in that gene pool. Mike Golden and Pinch are pretenders in every sense of the word.

[hogman]

06:16 AM on 01/30/2012

Justice.

[l78lancer]

02:05 AM on 01/30/2012

Guess the family is looking for a miracle worker to boost profits during a time when every other paper in America is hurting, too. They need to be sure that they tell their next CEO up front that they will need to make brick without straw.

[Alette]

10:40 PM on 01/29/2012

Maybe if the Times didn't spend 21 million dollars on bloated bureaucrats' salaries they might have money to pay real journalists to do some real journalism. But of course, advertisers might not like that. Better to stick to their present job of propaganda facilitator for the uber wealthy. Advertisers prefer that.

[tyrdofwaitin]

08:22 PM on 01/29/2012

My God. These severance packages almost make a case for promoting failure: It's Win Win no matter who loses. What a racket

[Giglawyer]

07:36 PM on 01/29/2012

Fear not - Bain Capital will buy the times, cut the fat, and bring it back to profitability!

[Giglawyer]

07:33 PM on 01/29/2012

On a side note, the Wall Street Journal is still profitable.

[senator11]

07:08 PM on 01/29/2012

Like liberalism, the New York Times is heading for extinction. Thankfully, there are only 20% of the American people that buy the BS the "columnists and editors" of the NYT preaches....pure drivel.

[Giglawyer]

07:32 PM on 01/29/2012

The NY Times was advertising on TV pretty heavily a while back. One snippet said "everyone knows the times has the best journalists - there's no debating that." I almost threw up in my mouth. Any time someone unilaterally declares the end to a debate, its only because their position is indefensible.

[noaxe396]

05:13 PM on 01/29/2012

Part of the decline in readership is that the Times still produces in-depth reporting on a wide range of issues.

That will never sell in a 148 character text message world.

In other words, people are too dumb to read the Times so that must be the Times's fault.

How did the venerable WSJ overcome this problem?

That paper was dumbed down from what it once was to the level of the contemporary reader.

[farberj]

04:55 PM on 01/29/2012

and here we have pinko rag sheet giving out millions of bucks to one of their own after complaining about wall street salaries.

[jantomnidrah]

04:25 PM on 01/29/2012

Never occured to NYT people are tired of reading the biased views and promoting the destruction of this country with articles by writers like Krugman and his pals. If Krugman is such a great economist, why is the Times going under, one would think he would have saved his own job. The times has the arrogance of Obama and the same attitude which is failing to improve anything in this country

[noaxe396]

05:07 PM on 01/29/2012

That's it? The Times is going down because of the opinions of a single op-ed writer?

Get a clue. ALL newspapers have liberal and conservative op-ed writers.

[BillCPA]

03:50 PM on 01/29/2012

In the early 1930"s, Walter Duranty, a reporter for the Times, won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting of marvelous conditions in the Soviet Union.

Trouble was, none of it was true.

The Times has been a willing and gullible tool for the Far Left ever since. The chickens are finally coming home to roost.

[noaxe396]

05:09 PM on 01/29/2012

Go tell that to the families of the 4500 dead service members who were sent to war based on the Times' colusion with Scooter Libby and the Bush administration.

Remember Judith Miller?

[BillCPA]

09:37 PM on 01/29/2012

Judith Miller was reporting the conventional wisdom of not only the Republicans but almost every major Democrat player in America.

Want some Democrat quotes on WMD's?

You simply must quit drinking the Kool-Aid. Think for yourself for a change. Research a subject. Come to your own conclusions.