NBC Starts 200 Layoffs

NEW YORK — Dozens of NBC News workers, back on the job today for the first time since ending their fruitless 18-week strike, were fired or offered payoffs to leave the company as the network began trimming its staff.

NBC confirmed that it had begun an announced plan to cut 200 workers, but denied a report in today’s New York Times that it presented plans at a budget meeting last week to dismiss an additional 500 employees. NBC, which sold its radio network last summer, had vowed to eliminate 200 jobs at the conclusion of the bitter strike, which a majority of the 2,800 demoralized strikers voted to end last month in defiance of the union’s leadership.