NY Times Promotes Sam Dolnick

The New York Times has promoted Sam Dolnick to associate editor. Dolnick most recently served as a senior editor for mobile, working on NYT Now and the Apple Watch app. Dolnick previously served as a deputy sports editor. He also spent time as a metro reporter and won a Polk Award. "We will now increase the digital energy on the desks — the heart and soul of our report — by providing more training and focusing greater attention on using new formats in a way that showcases our journalism and makes it more accessible," wrote Times executive editor, Dean Baquet, in a memo to staffers. "I’ve asked Sam Dolnick to lead the charge. He will serve as the bridge between the masthead, the new digital teams and our editors and reporters. Sam’s mission will be to agitate for change and to help accelerate the digital transformation that is already underway across the newsroom." Baquet's full memo is below. The newsroom has undergone sweeping digital change in the past year. Audience development is now fully incorporated into the life of the newsroom, we’ve built a new mobile team, developed new storytelling formats and features in our CMS and brought analytics into the newsroom. We’re about to do more. We will now increase the digital energy on the desks — the heart and soul of our report — by providing more training and focusing greater attention on using new formats in a way that showcases our journalism and makes it more accessible. I’ve asked Sam Dolnick to lead the charge. He will serve as the bridge between the masthead, the new digital teams and our editors and reporters. Sam’s mission will be to agitate for change and to help accelerate the digital transformation that is already underway across the newsroom. Sam will be an Associate Editor, effective immediately. He will work closely with the desks to build on the kind of innovative digital work that he and Steve Duenes have been highlighting in their newsletter every Friday. He will serve as the foremost advocate for the evolving digital needs of each desk, helping to implement our digital strategy and working closely with the digital deputies who will now report jointly to him and their desk heads. This will ensure that ideas are being shared across the entire newsroom. For this role, we were looking for someone who instinctively understands the Times and our journalistic values, but also sees clearly the changes we still need to make. Over the past year, Sam has been integral in shaping our digital strategy. He is also among our most accomplished journalists who understands that everything we do is in service of putting out the world’s best news report. Sam’s work as senior editor for mobile helped prepare him for this job, as did his time as the deputy editor for Sports, one of our most digitally ambitious desks. Over the past nine months, Sam, Cliff and the mobile teams across the company have made great strides in making mobile ever more central — we have assigned a team of mobile editors to the news desk, grown our mobile audience, overhauled our phone apps, doubled the audience of NYT Now, launched a Watch app, prototyped an experimental new personalized app, and incorporated mobile storytelling onto every desk. Sam will assemble a team that will include LaSharah Bunting, who has already been doing great work developing training modules throughout the newsroom. More on the rest of the team and Sam’s plans to come

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NY Times Promotes Sam Dolnick

Dolnick "Will serve as the bridge between the masthead, the new digital teams and our editors and reporters."

Chris O'Shea

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