NYT has financial, IT offices in Norfolk
The Pilot’s Phil Walzer taught me something today I didn’t know: The New York Times chain has a big office right here in downtown Norfolk.
From today’s Virginian-Pilot:
When an employee of The New York Times or one of its sister publications gets jammed up on the Internet, he doesn’t call Manhattan.
And when his co-worker gets denied insurance for a doctor’s visit, she doesn’t phone corporate in New York, either.
They both call Norfolk.
A division of one of the world’s most highly esteemed media companies quietly takes up the whole second floor of the World Trade Center in downtown Norfolk.
With 180 employees, the 11-year-old New York Times Co. Shared Services Center handles the less glamorous functions of the journalistic operation, such as technology trouble shooting, benefits administration and payroll processing. It receives about 45,000 invoices and 4,600 expense reports per month.
“I think some people are not quite sure what we’re doing here,” said Charlotte Herndon, president of the center.
…Besides The Times, The New York Times Co. owns more than 15 newspapers, primarily in the Southeast. In 1996, the company decided to centralize some of its business operations.
It chose Norfolk because of its central location to other Times properties and “the rich talent pool in the area,” Abbe Serphos, a spokeswoman for the company in New York, said in an e-mail.
 
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The Norfolk service office of the NYT.
Photo by Stephen Katz/Virginian-Pilot
 This bit was my favorite:
…About 90 employees, or half the staff, works in information technology. [Bill Roberts, the computer support manager at the center] leads a 20-person support team that works round-the-clock and averages 400 calls a day from computer users at Times subsidiaries.
The most common problems, he said, come from people who want to reset their passwords or can’t get into computer systems.
Good. I can’t remember my passwords, either. I guess that makes me NYT material. Â
Interestingly, five employees in the Norfolk accounts payable operation will be trimmed this year. The NYT is outsourcing the work to India.
Find the story in today’s Pilot:
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=122601&ran=151158Â
April 11th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Yip, when I was in Sarasota, our checks all came from the NYTSSC… and when our network went down, Norfolk got the call… and our benefits came from there, yada yada.
Seems like a weird place to have such a facility, unless you realize that the Times has a media operation in Norfolk — the CBS affiliate.
April 23rd, 2007 at 9:22 pm
The NYT’s Shared Services Center in Norfolk was among the most helpful when I was I was a Times freelancer ’round the turn of the millenium. They were the epicenter of providing payment for those long discontuned “digital image transmission fee” invoices at $100/day. Them were the “boom days” for digital!
Also, I recall receiving a telephone call from an accountant there inquiring why a $3,000 check not yet been cashed? Funny, I thought to myself, I was wondering why it was taking so long to get paid the last 5-6 weeks in transmission fees. They mailed it right out.
I found NYT Shared Services much friendlier & efficient than the folks on 43rd Street…Must be that natural Southern hospitality & charm!