Deadweight

Aiming to cut costs in an increasingly troubled advertising environment, The New York Times announced on Monday morning that it would offer buyout packages to newsroom employees. While the primary goal of the buyout program is to trim managers and other nonunion employees from its books, the company is offering employees represented by the Newspaper Guild the chance to volunteer for buyout packages as well. In a letter to the staff, Jill Abramson, executive editor of The Times, said she was seeking 30 managers who are not union members to accept buyout packages. 

She stressed that the paper had been reducing as many newsroom expenses as possible, like leases on foreign and national bureaus. But the hiring The Times has done in recent years to help make it more competitive online has restored the newsroom to the same size it was in 2003 — about 1,150 people. 

Start with the entire op-ed lineup except Krugman. Save more money - don't offer them buyouts. Terminate them for gross incompetence. Dowd can collect Social Security and Douthat can become a sperm donor. Friedman can sell appliances....

These buyouts are not being offered to members of the editorial department. Andrew Rosenthal, the ditorial page editor, wrote in a note that “we, too, have made reductions to our expenses to meet our share of this burden, but we are not going to be offering buyouts in the Editorial Department at this time.”

Like I said, just can them. And whoever hired Douthat too.