Times and mini-Times

In the UK we tend to call them "compromise agreements"; in the United States, they're less prissy - "non-disparagement clauses".  You sign a deal which says your pay-off is conditional on not rubbishing your former employer.

Sometimes the deal is mutual. We don't know yet about the settlement associated with Jill Abramson's abrupt exit from the New York Times editor's chair, but her employer, Arthur Sulzberger, in a second statement about her departure, has hardly added to her CV...

"During her tenure, I heard repeatedly from her newsroom colleagues, women and men, about a series of issues, including arbitrary decision-making, a failure to consult and bring colleagues with her, inadequate communication and the public mistreatment of colleagues. I discussed these issues with Jill herself several times and warned her that, unless they were addressed, she risked losing the trust of both masthead and newsroom..... We all wanted her to succeed. It became clear, however, that the gap was too big to bridge and ultimately I concluded that she had lost the support of her masthead colleagues and could not win it back."

It's also become clear that there were two Brits involved in the story. The Daily Beast has an email from NYT CEO Mark Thompson to Jill, about hiring The Guardian's US Editor, Janine Gibson, at Managing Editor level, described by Thommo, unhelpfully it turns out, as an entry level job. The discovery of this manouevre seems to have led the current Man Ed Dean Baquet into an uncharacteristic rage with Sulzberger. Combined with Abramson asking for more dosh, with the help of lawyers, and Gibson turning down Thommo's blandishments, Sulzberger seems to have been forced to choose between Abramson and Baquet.