Here's a little slice of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy day. At the annual New York Times State of the Newsroom meeting executive editor Bill Keller assured employees that there would be no further layoffs at the paper. "The answer is no...No, I do not see another round of newsroom staff reductions on the horizon." The Times went through a large round of cuts earlier this year, and Gawker reported a tip the other day that there were more coming. A tip Keller apparently scoffed at saying "Consider the source...You will hear it from me before you hear it on Gawker." Hmm, considering Gawker has been a reliable-ish source of late we wonder if Keller will eventually regret those words.

Anyway! No word yet on how the NYT Co. plans on retrieving itself from the junk status pile it was recently relegated to. However! They may not be alone. S&P has also just downgraded the Washington Post Co.'s (publisher of the paper as well as Newsweek) ratings outlook from stable to negative. Which, actually may not be quite as bad as it sounds since, unlike the NYT Co. dilemma, this is not an actual downgrade but more a sign of trouble ahead if things don't improve.