New York Times employees staged a protest on Thursday after the newspaper announced it would be eliminating the roles of about 100 copy editors.
Hundreds of New York Times employees walked out of their office near Times Square carrying protest signs in disapproval of the decision. Employees from various departments joined in to stand up for the copy editors, the Washington Post reported.
New York Times employees carried signs riddled with misspelled words to show the importance of a copy editor's role.
"Copy editors save our buts," "This sign wsa not edited," "We kneed are editors! They make us look smart," and "Without us, it's the New Yrok Times," the signs read.
A political reporter for Breitbart News tweeted out a photo of the poorly edited signs and a video of reporters chanting, "No editors, no peace."
Reporters and editors carrying signs at @nytimes protest pic.twitter.com/4M4PiNUK2n
— Adam Shaw (@AdamShawNY) June 29, 2017
.@nytimes reporters chanting "no editors, no peace" during walkout protest over cuts. pic.twitter.com/2xaNTbbeJ3
— Adam Shaw (@AdamShawNY) June 29, 2017
A staff writer at New York Magazine, Jenna Wortham, tweeted out a picture of employees walking out in "solidarity."
I've never seen anything like this : Each floor of the NYT newsroom is full of folks walking out in solidarity against the coming layoffs pic.twitter.com/6AgPDa8hKv
— Jenna //\\ Wortham (@jennydeluxe) June 29, 2017
The New York Times decided to eliminate the newspaper's stand-alone copy desk. The desk included more than 100 copy editors, who have been invited to apply for one of the 50 positions that will now be available.
The staff cuts are in an attempt to "streamline" the newsroom operation by reducing the layers of editing.