The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) Company is planning to cut newsroom jobs at its flagship newspaper, according to a memo posted on Gawker. About a dozen “support positions” will be eliminated from the newsroom, along with “a number” of clerical admin jobs; next year, several admin management positions will be cut, the memo says. None of these are reporting positions, the memo emphasized.

I confirmed the memo with NYT PR and the spokesperson emphasized that this is only for the newsroom, which since NYT is a converged newsroom, also means digital.

“As we approach 2008, it is clear that the newsroom is going to have to do even more to tighten spending, and to help the publisher and the Times Company meet the difficult financial challenges facing our industry. While we are committed to retaining our competitive muscle, we will be facing some tough choices about where to save,” said the memo from Bill Keller, exec editor for NYT.

Also, the company has a hiring freeze for the newsroom, which started “several weeks ago”, and “except for those jobs that are critically important to our future ambitions, we intend to enforce it,” the memo further said. The hiring freeze does not include the business side.