Bill Carter, Veteran New York Times TV Reporter, Taking Buyout

Bill Carter, who has covered the television industry at The New York Times for more than 25 years and remains one of the best known writers in the industry, is taking a voluntary buyout.

Carter said that leaving the paper was a "really wrenching and agonizing decision.” The Times is seeking 100 employees to take buyouts with layoffs possible if that number isn’t reached. "I went through a long process, but I couldn’t square passing up what amounts to the best kind of severance at a newspaper job," Carter said. Carter joined The Times as media reporter in 1989, after spending fourteen years as television critic for the Baltimore Sun.