"Times says demise of the nine-person team, created in 2009, won't affect climate coverage."
"The New York Times will close its environment desk in the next few weeks and assign its seven reporters and two editors to other departments. The positions of environment editor and deputy environment editor are being eliminated. No decision has been made about the fate of the Green Blog, which is edited from the environment desk.
"It wasn't a decision we made lightly," said Dean Baquet, the paper's managing editor for news operations. "To both me and Jill [Abramson, executive editor], coverage of the environment is what separates the New York Times from other papers. We devote a lot of resources to it, now more than ever. We have not lost any desire for environmental coverage. This is purely a structural matter."
On Dec. 3 the Times announced that it was offering buyouts to 30 newsroom managers in an effort to reduce newsroom expenses. But Baquet said the decision to dismantle the environment desk wasn't linked to budgetary concerns and that no one is expected to lose his or her job."
Katherine Bagley reports for InsideClimate News January 11, 2012.
SEE ALSO:
"Keeping Environmental Reporting Strong Won’t Be Easy" (New York Times/Public Editor's Journal)
"New York Times Widely Cricitized For Dismantling Its Environment Desk, Eliminating Editorial Positions" (Climate Progress)
"Major Shakeout Looms for Top New York Times Editors" (New York Magazine/Joe Hagan)
"The Changing Newsroom Environment" (Dot Earth/Andrew C. Revkin)
"NYT Eliminates Environment Desk" (Huffington Post/Tom Zeller Jr.)
"High-Level Layoffs Loom At N.Y. Times" (Politico/Dylan Byers)
"NYT Closes Its Environment Desk, Reassigns Journalists" (Poynter./Andrew Beaujon)
"Talk to The Times: Environment Desk" (New York Times/Revkin & Goode)
Andrew C. Revkin Post (Facebook)
"The New York Times Dissolves Its Environment Desk" (Grist)
"NY Times Kills Environment Desk" (ScienceBlogs/James Hrynyshyn)
