Sarah Palin and the New York Times have explored settling the former Alaska governor and Republican U.S. vice presidential nominee's closely watched defamation case against the newspaper, their lawyers said on Tuesday.

The action was criticized for its timing, which coincided with the final hours of the U.S. presidential election, thus impacting the newspaper’s ability to cover the race’s conclusion. While this was meant as a bargaining tactic designed to draw the paper’s executives to the table, that tactic doesn’t appear to have worked very well.

The New York Times Tech Guild ended its unfair labor practice strike Monday, one week after a majority of the 600-person unit walked off the job just before Election Day.