Traffic passes The New York Times building, in New York on Oct. 18, 2011. The newspaper on May 31, 2017, began offering buyouts to editorial staffers, seeking to reduce the number of editors on staff. (Photo: Mark Lennihan, AP)

The New York Times said Wednesday it would begin offering buyouts to newsroom staff in a move to reduce the number of editors.

Under the plan, the system of two separate groups of editors would be replaced with a single group of editors who handle stories, Executive Editor Dean Baquet and Managing Editor Joseph Kahn said in a memo to the newsroom, initially reported by The Times.

While editors are the focus of the buyouts, other newsroom employees, including reporters, can apply, the memo said. If not enough volunteers take buyouts, layoffs may be needed, it said. Savings from the staff reductions would be used to hire as many as 100 more journalists, according to the memo from Baquet and Kahn.

“Our goal is to significantly shift the balance of editors to reporters at The Times, giving us more on-the-ground journalists developing original work than ever before,” they said in the memo.

The single group of editors would replace The Times' current system of “backfielders” and copy editors who currently both look at stories before they are published, the memo said. Another editor would be “looking over their shoulders before publication,” it said.

"Editing is an essential ingredient in what makes The Times special," they said in the memo. "From guiding the report to perfecting stories, we are determined to preserve that distinguishing feature of The New York Times newsroom. Having examined editing at other institutions, we can assure you that even with these changes, we will still devote considerably more resources than our competitors to meticulous editing of our journalism."

In a statement about the negotiated buyout, The NewsGuild of New York voiced "grave concerns about reducing the ranks of editors."

"Doing so," the union said, "will increase the workload on those who remain, and we believe it will be detrimental not only to our members, but to the final product we all take pride in."

Among those who take the buyout, employees with 10 or more years of service will get a 10% bonus on top of the standard buyout payment under the guild's collective bargaining agreement, the guild said. As for payout terms, the guild said Times employees of 35 years or more will get two years of pay, while those with less than 35, but more than 11 will get three weeks' pay for every full year of service.

Also Wednesday, Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said in a memo to the staff that the newspaper would eliminate the position of public editor, a role created in 2003 after reporter Jayson Blair was caught plagiarizing and fabricating sources and quotes. The current public editor, Liz Spayd, will leave The Times on Friday.

"The public editor position, created in the aftermath of a grave journalistic scandal, played a crucial part in rebuilding our readers’ trusts by acting as our in-house watchdog," Sulzberger said. "We welcomed that criticism, even when it stung. But today, our followers on social media and our readers across the internet have come together to collectively serve as a modern watchdog, more vigilant and forceful than one person could ever be."

Social media and connecting with readers will be the function of a new "Reader Center," which The Times announced Tuesday, and which will be headed by current international desk editor Hanna Ingber. Her team will work with staffers and readers to "capitalize on our readers’ knowledge and experience, using their voices to make our journalism even better," Cliff Levy, a deputy managing editor at The Times, said in a note to employees.

The Times' buyouts continue the trend of downsizing in newspapers and across the media industry, even though The Times has seen growth in subscriptions, especially on digital, and in digital advertising revenue.

Recently, the national newspaper chain The McClatchy Company and BH Media Group, the media division owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, have had layoffs, as have other media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and Gannett, which owns USA TODAY, and 109 local news properties.

"There is obviously a need to save wherever you can and reallocate to get away from priorities of the past and adjust to a digital future," said Rem Rieder, a longtime media critic and contributor to Columbia Journalism Review.

Hiring more reporters "is always a good thing," he said. But the result of reducing the copy editing staff, as has been done at many newspapers, is "a lot of errors creep in and there's more sloppiness."

And the timing is not ideal for the Times to remove a public editor, Rieder said. "There’s an obvious need for such tough reporting on the Trump administration, but at the same time the need to make sure it doesn’t turn into a partisan operation," he said, " It’s just the thing where a public editor could really help."

Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.

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