UPDATE: Memo from Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. follows:

To the Staff:

Given the business challenges we face, we are constantly looking for ways to reduce costs that do not affect the quality or quantity of the journalism we provide to our readers. Next month you will see one such way in the metropolitan edition of The Times.

Beginning Monday, Oct. 6, we will introduce a new layout of the paper by consolidating some sections. Metro will be integrated into the Main News section Monday through Saturday. Business and Sports will be combined into one section Tuesday through Friday. There will be no loss of content for readers. In fact, there will be some advantages -- a freestanding Saturday Arts section and a return to later deadlines for Business news on
Monday -- and we are working to create later deadlines for culture coverage. The cost savings, which are significant, will come from the production savings of having a single run on more nights than we do today.

We are not reducing the space devoted to Metro or Sports news. This is simply a way to produce the paper more efficiently. These changes will affect the New York edition only, as the national edition is already configured in a similar fashion.

That said, we don't make these changes lightly. We care deeply about what our New York readers think about their edition. We know that many of our readers like and are comfortable with our current layout. But after a good amount of reader research and exploring various options, we feel this is an effective way to reduce expenses while providing our readers with the breadth and depth of high-quality coverage they expect from us and we are committed to giving them.

Arthur