The company today announced plans to reduce its newsroom staff by eight percent by the end of 2009. Cuts will be made by buyout, but the company will resort to layoffs should its hand be forced.

“As before, if we do not reach 100 positions through buyouts, we will be forced to go to layoffs,” New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller wrote in a note to employees. I hope that won’t happen, but it might. I won’t pretend that these staff cuts will not add to the burdens of journalists whose responsibilities have grown faster than their compensation. Like you, I yearn for the day when we can do our jobs without looking over our shoulders for economic thunderstorms.”

Sad, sad news for a storied newspaper and an imperiled industry.

Keller’s memo in full, below:

Colleagues,

I had planned to invite you to the newsroom and break this news in person today, but I’ve been hit by something that seems to be the flu. Though I strongly believe in delivering bad news in person, I don’t want to add insult to injury by spreading infection.

Let me cut to the chase: We have been told to reduce the newsroom by 100 positions between now and the end of the year.

We hope to accomplish this by offering voluntary buyouts. On Thursday, the Company will be sending buyout offers to everyone in the newsroom. Getting a buyout package does NOT mean we want you to leave. It is simply easier to send the envelopes to everyone. If you think a buyout may be right for you, you have up to 45 days to decide whether you will accept it or not.

As before, if we do not reach 100 positions through buyouts, we will be forced to go to layoffs. I hope that won’t happen, but it might.

Our colleagues in editorial and op-ed, and on the business side, also face another round of budget cuts.

In recent years, we’ve managed to avoid the disabling cutbacks that have hit other newsrooms. The Company has chosen to protect the journalism by cutting production and other business-side costs, and the newsroom itself has managed its resources frugally. These latest cuts will still leave us with the largest, strongest and most ambitious editorial staff of any newsroom in the country, if not the world.

I won’t pretend that these staff cuts will not add to the burdens of journalists whose responsibilities have grown faster than their compensation. But we’ve been looking hard at ways to minimize the impact–in part, by re-engineering some of our copy flow. I won’t promise this will be easy or painless, but I believe we can weather these cuts without seriously compromising our commitment to coverage of the region, the country and the world. We will remain the single best news organization on earth.

I doubt that anyone is shocked by the fact of this, but it is happening sooner than anyone anticipated. When we took our 5 percent pay cuts, it was in the hope that this would fend off the need for more staff cuts this year. But I accept that if it’s going to happen, it should be done quickly. We will get through this and move on.

In my absence, Bill Schmidt and John and Jill have volunteered to take your questions this afternoon. Feel free to bring additional questions to me as soon as I’m back, or check with Bill Schmidt or John or Jill privately, or save them for the next Throw Stuff at Bill session, which is in a couple of weeks.

We often–and rightly–voice our gratitude that we work for a company and a family that prize quality journalism above all. I hope you know that the company and the family, and I, feel an equal debt of gratitude to all of you whose sacrifice and loyalty have kept us strong.

Like you, I yearn for the day when we can do our jobs without looking over our shoulders for economic thunderstorms.

Bill

In the consumer market, Apple (AAPL) scored 811 points out of a possible 1000, exceeding the industry average of 765. Its closest rival, LG–the only other company to beat that average, scored 776.

Apple’s performance in the enterprise market was equally impressive. The company scored 803 points out of a possible 1000. That was 79 points more than RIM, whose BlackBerry took second place with a score of 724 points, the industry average.

And what of Palm (PALM) devices and smart phones running Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Mobile OS? Neither had a particularly remarkable showing. Among consumer smart phone users, Palm devices scored 731, while WinMo devices from Samsung and HTC both scored 739. And among business users, Palm devices scored 688, while WinMo devices from Samsung and HTC scored 697 and 692, respectively. The study, it should be noted, was fielded between January and June 2009, so it does not account for Palm’s new Pre handset. (See charts below; click to enlarge.)

Clearly, the iPhone has gained a fair bit of traction in enterprise in a relatively short time. Who was it again who said the iPhone “doesn’t appeal to business because it doesn’t have a keyboard”?

[Image credits: MacDailyNews, J.D. Power and Associates ]

Those ruthless, conniving bastards. Strategizing to thwart a rival.

I’m sure nothing of this sort goes on over at Google (GOOG), where everything is altruism and Segways and don’t-be-evil happy rainbows. Surely, the lobbyists Google employs are working exclusively to advance the company’s mission of organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful. They’d never do anything untoward like conspire to protect Google’s interests from a competitor. They’d never, for example, draft an antitrust complaint to the Justice Department that forced Microsoft (MSFT) to make changes to its new Vista operating system.

Please. This is business is usual. And if Google’s lobbyists aren’t holding a weekly “Screw Microsoft” meeting or some variation on that, then Google should get some new lobbyists.

Why the hesitation? A little gun-shy after that ill-starred Vista deployment? Perhaps. Of those surveyed, 42 percent cited lack of time and resources as their reason for not upgrading. 39 percent said they had concern about the compatibility of Windows 7 with existing applications (click on chart below).

Always wise to wait for the release of that first service pack, right? That said, the fact that nearly 40 percent of businesses do plan to upgrade by the end of 2010 is noteworthy. That’s a high level of adoption for a new OS, especially in the current economic climate.

It’s not yet clear whether Beijing delayed the order because PC makers were having trouble supplying all new machines with the program or in reaction to the international outcry over it. In a letter to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last week, an international group of business associations that includes most of the world’s major technology companies, called upon China to abandon the plan, which it said “raises serious concerns for us and seems to run counter to China’s important goal of becoming a vibrant and dynamic information-based society.”

On Thursday, Big Blue said it plans to invest $100 million over the next five years in mobile computing efforts, specifically emerging market mobility, mobile enterprise enablement and enterprise-to-end-user mobile experience. “Mobility and the associated analytics will change virtually every enterprise business process,” said Paul Bloom, chief technologist, IBM Telecom Research. “It will change the relationship between enterprises and their customers, their employees and their partners, enabling them to do business in more intelligent, efficient ways.”

A smart move for IBM, I think. With innovation in the mobile sector so focused on the everyday consumer, there’s certainly room for more corporate computing initiatives. And IBM (IBM) has the market heft and reputation to spur adoption there–particularly if it manages to develop some strong authentication and security measures.

“The key thing was our CEO, Ed Colligan, had the insight that once the [BlackBerry] Pearl came out, the smart-phone business was going to be a consumer business, and Palm was not positioned for that and needed a major transformation, and that’s what we got involved in doing. The whole notion was you wanted to take that cultural legacy of innovation that created the Pilot and the Treo and then apply it to the next customer.”

–Roger McNamee lauds Palm CEO Ed Colligan at our recent D: All Things Digital conference

Now we know why it was Palm executive chairman Jon Rubinstein and investor Roger McNamee on stage at D last month talking up the Pre, and not CEO Ed Colligan: Colligan was on his way out.

On Wednesday, Palm (PALM) named Rubinstein as its new chairman and CEO. Come Friday he’ll succeed Colligan, who is leaving the company after 16 years to join McNamee at Elevation Partners. Apparently Palm, who recruited Rubinstein, a former Apple (AAPL) engineer, to turn the company around has decided it would much rather have him in its highest office than Colligan under whose leadership it was foundering.

In a statement, Rubinstein–who has spent the past two years quarterbacking the development of the Pre and its webOS–welcomed his new role. “I am very excited about taking on this expanded role at Palm,” he said. “Ed and I have worked very hard together the past two years, and I’m grateful to him for everything he’s done to help set the company up for success. With Palm webOS we have ten-plus years of innovation ahead of us, and the Palm Pre is already one of the year’s hottest new products. Due in no small part to Ed’s courageous leadership, we’re in great shape to get Palm back to continuous growth, and we plan to keep the trajectory going upward.”

Reached for comment late Wednesday afternoon, Roger McNamee offered up this rather canned statement on Palm’s leadership transition: “With Ed’s decision to step down, Jon Rubinstein is the natural choice to lead Palm into its next phase of growth. Jon has proven to have exactly the right mix of product vision, organizational leadership and operational capabilities to help Palm regain a leadership position. We are grateful for the leadership role Ed has played in initiating this transformation and getting through the successful launch of webOS and the Pre.”

Palm shares are up 3.75 percent at $12.44 on the news.

Hewlett-Packard’s second-quarter financials may have been in line with forecasts, but they were troubling nonetheless. A number of analysts predicted that the company might report better-than-expected earnings. Sadly, it did not. HP’s net income for the period fell 17 percent to $1.7 billion, or 70 cents per share. Excluding one-time items, the company earned 86 cents a share, compared with a profit of 87 cents a share in the same period last year. The results include charges of 2 cents a share related to a patent dispute. Sales fell three percent to $27.4 billion. Every division of the company, save one, reported a decline in revenue. The lone highlight, Services, posted an increase, but that was due primarily to HP’s acquisition of EDS. The grim details:

Enterprise Storage and Servers: down 28 percent
Software: down 15 percent
Personal Systems Group: down 19 percent (though it claims the leading market position in PCs in every region)
Imaging and Printing Group: down 23 percent
Financial Services: down 6 percent
Services: up 99 percent

Clearly, the decline in consumer and business spending is weighing heavy on HP (HPQ) and will continue to do so. The company expects third-quarter revenue to be approximately flat to down two percent sequentially. And it says full-year revenue will slip approximately four to five percent from the prior-year period.

UPDATE: During a conference call to discuss earnings, HP’s leadership said the company will sack about two percent of the workforce in the months ahead as it looks to trim costs. 6,400 employees will lose their jobs as a result.

“If you’re selling something or running a campaign–if you want to do that in the traditional world, then you would set up an 800 number, for example,” Stefan Oberg, the head of Skype’s business division, told ZDnet. “But 800 numbers are local to a country. So if you’re an international business, you have to set up 800 numbers in many countries. Now a company can have a button on their webpage or refer to Skype in an ad, and it’s like a virtual, global 800 number.”

As I said, a compelling proposition. But will enough companies take Skype up on it to really cause a significant increase in revenue? Particularly in a market as competitive as business communications? A market in which traditional phone companies are already peddling their own VOIP offerings?

Not much of an improvement over “BlackBerry Application Center,” but an improvement nonetheless. A placeholder page for the yet-to-be launched mobile application storefront went live last night, along with a developer FAQ that reveals the store’s tiered pricing model. Like Apple’s App Store, BlackBerry App World will offer some apps for free, but it’s set the minimum price for paid apps at $2.99. That’s a $2 departure from Apple’s 99-cent minimum price and it has generated no end of jawing among tech observers. But does anyone really believe that RIM’s business customers will balk at a $2.99 minimum price point? And in the end, isn’t a higher minimum price point better for developers? At worst, it might potentially discourage the development of smaller throwaway apps. But it might also make App World a bit more financially intriguing to iPhone-obsessed developers. And that certainly can’t hurt.

A few quick highlights from the earnings statement and investor call before the official release, appended below.

• Apple sold 22.7 million iPods and 4.4 million iPhones during the quarter.
• It shipped 2.5 million Macs.
• Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2009, the company expects revenue in the range of about $7.6 billion to $8 billion.
• The release includes no mention of Jobs’s health.

During a call to discuss Apple’s latest earnings, Steve Jobs and his health were top of mind. Indeed, the first question of the call centered around this very issue:

Q: Well, since I’m going first, I guess I’ll ask how is Steve and hope he’s doing well. And I just wanted to know how, if you’ll run the company differently with Tim or the same and if need be, if Tim — do you feel like you would be the likely candidate if the worst case scenario were to happen if Steve was unable to return.”

Apple COO Tim Cook: There is an extraordinary depth and breadth in Apple’s executive team. And it leads over 35,000 wicked smart people. We believe we’re on the face of earth to make great products, and that’s not changing. We believe in simple not complex. We believe in deep collaboration. We have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong. These values are so embedded in the company that we will do extremely well regardless of who has the CEO Job. I strongly believe that Apple is doing the best work in its history.

Also the focus of some discussion the possibility of an Apple netbook. Is Apple considering entering the sub-$500 netbook market? Cook says not right now. “We’re watching that space, but from our point of view, the products are based on hardware that’s not very powerful, software that’s not that good and cramped displays. We don’t think that people are going to be pleased with that. It’s a category we watch and we have some ideas for it, but we think the products there right now are inferior.”

Here’s the official release:

Apple Reports First Quarter Results
Best Quarterly Revenue and Earnings in Apple History
iPod Sales Set New Record

“Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history—surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.