In a Wednesday meeting with the employees of The Boston Globe, Janet Robinson, CEO of New York Times Co, said that though The Times still intends selling The Globe, the decision has now become "not so imperative," with The Globe showing notable improvements in its finances, largely due to cost reductions.

The Times Co. has been deliberating the sale of The Globe, along with its remaining New England Media Group, including the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, Massachusetts.

Noting that savings had strengthened The Globe's financial foothold, Robinson and The Times' Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. assured the workers that the decision to sell The Globe will not be based on price, but also on the manner in which the new owner would treat the newspaper.

It was in April that The Times, saying that The Globe was heading in the direction of incurring an $85 million loss this year, had threatened to shutter the paper, to press for $20 million in cost-cuts, by the way of substantial wage, benefit and job security concessions from labor unions, alongside some other measures to improve The Globe's calamitous financial position.

Thanking the employees for the sacrifices they had made, Sulzberger said the cost-cutting efforts had yielded the desired results, whereby "our hand is not being forced. We are not in a situation where we must absolutely sell."