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Thought the star system at The New York Times died with Howell Raines' editorship? Perhaps in the public eye, yes. But in the way that really matters — the pocketbook — far from it. Since 1990, it turns out, the Times has awarding favored writers a special "senior writer" status — which is to say, a we-like-you cash bonus. But there's a problem! With no one moving out of the senior-writer slots, there's no way to move new people in. And so there was a memo from Bill Keller yesterday: Senior writer terms will now last for only four years, after which you might be renewed but might not be. This way, there'll be new slots opening regularly, and the chance for new hotshots to get their bonuses.

And also it'll remind those favored folks that while the Times might like them a lot, it doesn't like them nearly enough to give them a real raise they could actually, you know, count on.

Keller's memo is after the jump.

May 04, 2006
Senior Writer Program

We are pleased to announce that we have, at long last, come up with a new formulation for the Senior Writer program, which since 1990 has been providing yearly bonuses to our best journalistic performers. We believe these changes — which take effect immediately — will enable us to do what we have not been able to do for some time — add new people to our Senior Writer ranks, beginning in the coming months.

The core purpose of the program remains the same: to reward and to honor a select cadre of a few dozen senior Times journalists who have eschewed the perks and bonuses of the management track to remain on the front lines of the newspaper's journalism.

A major change in the program is that henceforth we will limit the term of each newly designated Senior Writer to four years. When we name a new group of Senior Writers later this year — a group that will include some incumbents drawn from the ranks of those currently in the program as well as brand new Senior Writer designees — each will be guaranteed his or her annual Senior Writer bonus for just those four years.

At the end of the fourth year, the members of the masthead — in consultation with department and section heads — will decide whether to roll over each of those Senior Writers to another four-year term (and another four years of the bonus), or choose others in their place.

There will be one other important change: in the past, eligibility for the program was limited to reporters, correspondents, columnists, critics and photographers. While they will remain the focus of the program, we will begin to consider others who also make distinctive contributions to Times journalism, as designers, graphic artists and copy editors. Later, we hope to extend the program to those who help produce our Digital content as well.

Over the past year we have wrestled with nearly every possible permutation to repair the existing program, including abolishing it. Because Senior Writer tenure has been until now more or less indefinite, we have been able to add only a few new names to the roster since 2000; we had — quite simply — run out of money for new slots. As a result, too many highly deserving colleagues were being closed out of the list each year, because the program was never designed — nor funded — to support an unlimited expansion in the number of people receiving the bonus.

In the end, we settled on this new design because we believe it will give us much more flexibility in the way we are able to distribute our limited but generous pool of Senior Writer dollars — without sacrificing the underlying ideals that supported the program when it was launched 16 years ago.

To give us more headroom, writers and photographers who are in the existing Senior Writer program will be gradually phased out of it over the next four years. Those with the longest tenure (i.e., Senior Writers selected for the program between 1990 and 1993) will cycle out this year; those with the least tenure will not be phased out until 2009.

All current Senior Writers were informed in February of these planned changes. As they exit the program, they will each receive a one-time bump in salary, as a lasting recognition of their stature. They also become eligible for readmission to the program, when a new group of Senior Writers is chosen each year.

Eventually, we will have in place four new classes of Senior Writers, on staggered four-year cycles, so that every year we will have the opportunity to reconsider and renew about a quarter of the Senior Writer awardees in the program, at any one point.

As before, people will be tapped as Senior Writers on the basis of sustained journalistic performance, over a number of years, as reflected in their annual performance evaluations and their impact on the pages of The Times. Among other things, the process will also take into account the importance of providing retention incentives to top talent. As now, only those who have at least eight years' seniority as Times journalists are eligible to be considered for the program.

In considering and making these changes, which were reviewed and endorsed by the Newspaper Guild, our intention from the outset has been to create a much more flexible, much more fluid program, with some people remaining as Senior Writers cycle after cycle, and others coming in and out of the program every four years.

If you have any questions about the program, or your own eligibility, please get in touch with Bill Schmidt, at x1211 or via e-mail, schmidt@nytimes.com.

Cheers,
Bill Keller