At the Daily News downtown offices on Tuesday, incoming editor-in-chief Robert York asked the remaining 40 or so newsroom staffers during an all-hands meeting to give him at least 30 days to prove he is serious about trying to develop a strategy to right the ship.

Grant Whitmore, the executive vice president and general manager who broke the stunning news to staffers on Monday that 50 percent of their colleagues would be cut, admitted at the meeting that Tronc had not developed a comeback strategy before Monday’s cuts.

“That’s a very reasonable question,” Whitmore said, according to an audio recording of the meeting that was reviewed by CNN, which broke the news. “That is not the way we did it.”

Insiders told CNN that they were not informed of the meeting until 30 minutes before its start — meaning reporters out covering stories were unable to attend.