Guru

Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, is a smart man.

Faced with the prospect of telling hacks that he had to make 100 of them redundant by the end of the year, he decided to steer well clear of the newsroom and feign illness.

Here are the opening lines of his letter, sent to staff on Monday.

"Colleagues, I had planned to invite you to the newsroom and break this news in person Monday, but I've been hit by something that seems to be the flu.
Though I strongly believe in delivering bad news in person, I don't want to add insult to injury by spreading infection.
Let me cut to the chase: We have been told to cut 100 newsroom positions between now and the end of the year."

Perhaps Bill was struck down by something akin to swine flu? Maybe the more virulent strain of Massively Convenient Flu.

And Guru is sure that his three colleagues left to deal with the fallout from the letter weren't exactly best pleased. "Feel free to bring additional questions to me when I'm back", he writes. When will that be Bill? Just after you've got over that nasty bout of yellow fever that's kept you off work for two months...