We use Dewar and paginate with Quark. I've never heard of anyone trying out. There are a lot of interns, though. There is some training in the form of workshops every blue moon, but many of us would like to have more meetings and training. On the news desk, there are mainly swing shifts.
Extra pages are okay.
In the past 3 months, there have been many people leaving the company to go to dot-coms. It is generally understood that the Times does not pay people enough. This might create more jobs for less-experienced people to get a foot in the door.