The company cut its dividend from 23 cents per share to 6 cents to save money in the face of a sharply declining advertising market and impending financial obligations.
It revealed that its overall revenues for October were down 9.4% to $296.8m (£200m).
Arthur Sulzberger, company chairman and New York Times newspaper publisher, said: "This was a difficult but necessary decision that will provide us with greater financial flexibility in these uncertain economic times."
The dividend cut was supported but described as "difficult" by the trustees of the Ochs-Sulzberger family, which controls the company through a special class of shares -- although the family only owns 19% of it. The payout to them will go down from $25.1m to $6.6m.
The New York Times has been in the family's ownership for more than a century. Last year the family that owned the Wall Street Journal since the late 1920s, the Bancrofts, sold it to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which has created uncertainty and pitted Murdoch's resources directly against the Times.
There is also speculation that the company's problems are big enough that it will have to sell off some of its assets, such as the Boston Globe, or reduce its staff levels.
It has $1.1bn of debt with a repayment of $49.5m due in December, a $400m credit agreement expiring in May and about $100m in medium-term debt due for repayment in late 2009.
There was a further sign of the pressure on news organisations yesterday when the Associated Press revealed it was planning to cut up to 10% of its workforce, potentially affecting 400 staff.
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