New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet announced Monday that Arthur Gregg Sulzberger will become the newspaper's Senior Editor for Strategy.
Sulzberger, son of the Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., joined the Times in 2009 after leaving his post as a reporter at the Oregonian newspaper. He has since headed the paper's innovation report which evaluates the Times' digital strategy, calling out key areas for improvement. Sulzberger has long been tipped as a potential successor to his father and Monday's news was seen by many as one more step up the ladder.
In his new role, Baquet said Sulzberger will "aggressively search for the trends and developments in the industry" and "help the newsroom's leaders and Andy Rosenthal build a joint newsroom-editorial page audience development operation that can pull all the levers and build readership." Baquet praised the innovation report as a great success and said it should "come as no surprise" that Sulzberger has now been chosen to lead the strategy operation.
"Arthur will report to me," Baquet wrote.
Sulzberger's promotion comes during a wave of staff and structural changes at the paper following Baquet's replacement of former executive editor Jill Abramson. Just after the release of the innovation report, Baquet told staffers to "move with urgency" to catch the paper up with its competitors on the digital front. The Times recently announced that it would be adding deputy-level editors to each major news desk to enhance its digital product.
Sulzberger will be the one to "make sure the report's proposals become reality," Baquet wrote.
Read the full memo below:
“Since it was released last Spring, our innovation report has been hailed as an important piece of strategic thinking about how The Times can take its fate into its own hands and draw more readers for our powerful journalism.
So it should come as no surprise that the person who will help make sure the report's proposals become reality, we've settled on its lead author --- Arthur Gregg Sulzberger, who will become a Senior Editor for Strategy.
In a nutshell, Arthur will aggressively search for the trends and developments in the industry -- from the way people read us as they bounce from mobile to print, to the most Timesian way of finding and grooming a new and bigger audience. He will assemble a small group of people -- perhaps three -- from inside and outside the newsroom and they will coordinate with Will Bardeen's company-wide strategy operation. In fact, at least one member of Will's team will be part of Arthur's group.
Arthur will report to me. But his first task will be to help the newsroom's leaders and Andy Rosenthal build a joint newsroom-editorial page audience development operation that can pull all the levers and build readership. This will be another shared resource like photography, video and news design.
One reason the innovation report was a success was that it was based on good reporting by some of our best journalists. So Arthur and his team will continue to be practically-minded advisers, developing strategies to make sure that our best enterprise and news coverage -- all that makes us special -- find the most readers.
Before joining The Times, Arthur worked as a reporter for the Providence Journal and the Oregonian. He joined the metro desk in 2009, where he worked for City Room and later covered Federal court.
He reopened the Kansas City bureau, and spent two years as one of our finest national correspondents. He was an editor on metro where, among other assignments, he was deeply involved in our series on the failings of the Bronx court system.
Dean"