How NYT CEO Meredith Kopit Levien Is Advancing Culture

New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien wants to make something clear: There is a difference between the news cycle and the news. That distinction—and a belief that the addressable audience who will pay for quality news will continue to grow regardless of who’s in the White House or what stage of the pandemic we’re in—will help shield the Times from Covid cohorts churning out and propel it toward its 2025 goal of 10 million subscriptions, according to Adweek’s Publishing Executive of the Year. “We are relentlessly focused on growing the Times, but we’re in an ecosystem,” Levien says. “A lot of our work is making a market for paid-subscription journalism. We believe there’s plenty room for us to grow and for others to succeed.” The market is the roughly 100 million English speakers willing to pay for news, based on the Times’ calculations, about half of whom are based in the U.S., and growth will come from overseas as well as from enhancing its news services like live reporting, non-core news features like Games and its affiliate business Wirecutter, which is testing its own paid version. But to lay the right foundation for growth, the Times, like many media organizations, has taken a long hard look at itself. This is the work that has preoccupied Levien for most of her first year as CEO. The mission Levien joined The New York Times in 2013—a year before a leaked internal Innovation Report called for a more digital-first organization—but took up the CEO role at the height of the pandemic in September 2020. The newsroom was furiously trying to cover three of the most significant news stories of a lifetime: a once-in-a-hundred-years pandemic, a once-in-50-years racial justice movement and an unprecedented presidential election. We are relentlessly focused on growing the Times, but we’re in an ecosystem.Meredith Kopit Levien The upshot was a record 2020 in terms of subscription growth at the Times, with giant audience highs leading to some expected churn. In its August earnings call, the Times counted 8 million total subscriptions. While it added fewer than in previous quarters, subscription revenue was up, thanks in part to graduating readers to higher rates. And thanks to its efforts in audio and multiyear cross-platform brand partnerships, digital ad revenue forecasts are looking healthy. Following the transition from Mark Thompson, who was CEO for eight years, Levien’s priorities were twofold: ensuring the Times delivered on people’s need for information and analysis across these three complex stories and others, and supporting a staff of close to 5,000 operating remotely. Tying values to action Like many organizations, the Times endured its own racial reckoning, spurred in part by several resignations, including that of opinion page editor James Bennet (for running a controversial op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton advocating the use of military reinforcements against Black Lives Matter protests, a piece the Times later said did not meet editorial standards), in addition to responding to the unfolding racial justice movement following the murder of George Floyd. In February 2021, the Times published a report revealing uncomfortable truths about the experience of people of color working there. Asian American women recalled feeling unseen “to the point of being regularly called by the name of a different colleague of the same race.” Black employees, particularly Black women, rated the company lower across all categories in a 2020 employee survey. A lack of visibility of people of color in leadership roles and additional workloads and emotional loads placed upon Black employees also bubbled up. To help rectify this, the Times’ multiyear plan states clear targets, like increasing the representation of Black and Latinx colleagues in leadership by 50% by 2025, creating clearer pathways for people of color to progress, and scrapping “sensitivity reads," whereby employees of color are brought in at the last minute to check that a “story framing and language hold up to our news standards." “Creating quality independent journalism is a deeply human endeavor,” says Levien. "There has always been the sense that we are only as good as the talent we attract.” The idea is these improvements will not only change the culture and mental well-being of colleagues for the better, but also improve the product—the journalism. Over the past year, Levien has focused on tying the Times’ six company values—which include respect, curiosity and collaboration as well as more nebulous traits like excellence, independence and integrity—to how they translate into behavior among colleagues. Staffers received a framework as well as training on putting each of the company values into practice. “The last 20 months have shown us how important it is that we put intentionality into how people relate to each other within the whole organization, roughly 3,000 outside the newsroom,” Levien says. “I think we’ve made good strides, but we have a way to go.” Communication has improved, as it has at many organizations, by necessity. The Times now holds hourlong monthly, all-staff meetings during which executives share details on the development of the business strategy as well as behind the scenes on how its journalism works. A lightning rod The Times is not alone in undergoing a reckoning. Few leadership executives are not concerned with staff well-being since Covid-19 thrust the issue into the spotlight. But its preeminent status makes it a lightning rod. Now, for the first time in its 170 years, there is more focus at the Times on the how rather than the what. “We’re spending much more time and energy now about how we go about the work and not just the work itself,” Levien says. To do this, the Times has had to assemble the right leadership team, which has taken years. In July, former Airbnb and Facebook exec Jason Sobel took the chief technology officer job, which had been open for months. Product vet Alex Hardiman returned in 2019 as head of product, graduating to chief product officer in September 2020. In January, the Times appointed Jacqueline Welch as the executive vice president and chief of human resources, who has been instrumental in enacting Levien's changes. In terms of how the Times goes about how it does the work, rather than the work itself, Levien is preoccupied with grounding this in reality. “As a leadership team, we are asking what does that mean in practice, how do we go about it?” Levien says. “How can we put intentionality around the culture and how we show up?” Check out the rest of the 2021 Hot List here.

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How New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien Is Advancing Culture, for Staffers and Readers

Adweek’s Publishing Executive of the Year reflects on her first year on the job

Lucinda Southern

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