Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 2003--More than two-thirds of hiring managers (68%) surveyed in the metropolitan New York area say their companies have not implemented any employee salary increases in 2003, according to a just-released survey conducted for The New York Times Job Market. Nearly the same proportion of hiring managers (67%) say they expect salaries at their companies to remain at current levels for the remainder of 2003.

Thirty-two percent (32%) of hiring managers surveyed say that their organizations have implemented salary increases in 2003 compared to 47% in 2002. According to the survey, the median salary increase to date in 2003 is 4%.

Beta Research Corporation, on behalf of The New York Times Job Market, conducted telephone interviews with 250 hiring managers and 200 job seekers in the New York metropolitan area. Job seekers are defined as those who are currently looking or plan to look for a new job in the next six months.

Salary Increase Criteria

Hiring managers who gave increases say they consider several criteria to determine employee salary increases, including:

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    Individual employee performance                74%
    Company performance                            36%
    Department performance                         21%
    Union contract                                  6%

Most hiring managers (73%) say they initiate salary increases versus doing so only in response to an employee's request (27%).

Salary Expectations

Sixty-one percent (61%) of job seekers say they expect their salary levels to increase, 27% expect them to remain the same and 12% expect them to decrease at their next job.

Seventy-five percent (75%) of job seekers currently employed by companies with 100 or more employees are more confident about receiving a salary increase in their next job compared to 50% of job seekers at companies with fewer than 100 employees who say this.

About Job Market

Job Market, the print and online recruitment services offering of The New York Times, provides employers and job seekers with comprehensive resources to streamline the recruitment process. Job Market appears in The New York Times every Sunday and is updated throughout the week at NYTimes.com, where job seekers can find job listings, career-related Times articles, exhaustive company research, a resume database and valuable career resources.

Through the newspaper's national audience, which includes 5.0 million weekday readers and 5.5 million Sunday readers as well as the 1.4 million readers who visit NYTimes.com every day, The New York Times Job Market reaches a marketplace of high-quality professionals actively seeking new job opportunities or considering career moves.

Each week, The New York Times Job Market issues research on industry trends and workplace practices affecting employers and job seekers in the metropolitan New York region. On a monthly basis, The New York Times Job Market releases its Job Market Confidence Index. The Index tracks current conditions for recruitment in the New York metro area as well as future outlook for the coming six months. Copies of Job Market research reports are available upon request or at NYTimes.com/jobmarket. New York-based Beta Research Corporation, via random telephone interviews, independently conducts The New York Times Job Market research.

NOTE: Job Market research is not affiliated with the editorial operations of The New York Times newspaper and does not reflect the views of the newspaper or its journalists. Source all references to Job Market research as: The New York Times Job Market.

About The New York Times Company

The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT), a leading media company with 2002 revenues of $3.1 billion, includes The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, 16 other newspapers, eight network-affiliated television stations, two New York City radio stations and more than 40 Web sites, including NYTimes.com and boston.com. For the third consecutive year, the Company was ranked No. 1 in the publishing industry in Fortune's 2002 list of America's Most Admired Companies. In 2003 the Company was named by Fortune as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For. The Company's core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.

This press release can be downloaded from www.nytco.com and www.nytco.com/community

    CONTACT: The New York Times
             Betsy Areddy,              
             or Al Leach,