The evolving New York Times

The New York Times this morning released its goals and plans to make its news product more visual and engaging.

In a memo to the staff, Executive Editor Dean Baquet and Managing Editor Joe Kahn laid out plans to restructure how the Times is edited online and in print. Among other things, the Times will lay off editors to reduce redundant editorial handling of content, and expand the use of visual editors and reporters. The paper will be installing a new CMS to allow a wider range of its staff to have control over the visual presentation of stories. Additionally, in a further effort to make the Times digital-first, a new print hub will be established, completely independent of editorial departments.

This astonishingly transparent report is a follow up to the 2014 Innovation report and the "Our Path Forward" memo issued last year. This report is of particular interest to those of you in this class, as the visual reporting skills we are learning are those the Times looks to deploy. The Times is seeking to design the newsroom of the future—the type of newsroom you may end up in.

This report and the accompanying memo will be a reading assignment in the not-to-distant future. A due date will be provided on Learning Suite. But, in the meantime, feel free to read it over.