Times set to axe Times2 supplement as staff await news of job cuts

A major shakeup at the Times will be announced soon, with the axing of the Times2 features supplement coming as staff await news of job cuts.

The jobs cull is uncertain, with no decision taken yet, according to sources – but staff are convinced cuts are coming. The Times did not comment.

But what is certain is that sometime in March Times2 will vanish. Possibly 5 March will be its final fling, more than a decade after a features supplement first appeared in the paper.

The Times's energetic editor, James Harding, was in New York two weeks ago to pay fealty to the News Corporation chief executive and chairman, Rupert Murdoch, who signed off on the proposed redesign, which is being led by Alex O'Connell.

After the supplement is discontinued the Times's main book will expand, with at least two new feature spreads each day in the main paper, where arts coverage will also move. The well-regarded Times2 editor, Emma Tucker, will oversee these pages.

This will increase the pagination of main paper, giving it a larger first half, which is the more favoured location for advertisers.

Football supplement the Game stays on Mondays, as does property supplement Bricks & Mortar on Friday. New supplements are planned for the rest of the week, possibly themed around food, health and fashion.

The supplement was relaunched as T2 under former editor Robert Thomson in 2005, and again relaunched as Times2 when Harding redesigned the paper in 2008.

There is also a plan to merge the subbing of home and foreign stories into a single pool. Features subbing may be merged with the Saturday production operation.

All this comes after last week's departure of the head of the Times business production operation, Dennis Rink, who had his contract terminated after 22 years at the paper.

Yesterday's paper featured an 80-page main book plus a 24-page Times2. A typical edition of the post-Times2 paper will be bigger than 80 pages – but smaller than yesterday's combined pagination.

However the Times dresses up the changes, it is cost-cutting. Times2 existed because it is easier to read features in a supplement than in a large, hard-to-navigate tabloid. Even the Independent, with all its troubles, has kept its 20-page features supplement, Life.

I get the feeling that one day a features supplement – be it Times2 or a successor – will return to the Times.