Designers, coders and developers to join WSJ newsroom

Wall Street Journal managing editor Gerard Baker sent out the following announcement to the staff on Friday:

I’m delighted to announce a significant new milestone on our way to creating the world’s leading digital news organization: Starting next month, a team of web designers, mobile coders and digital developers will join the newsroom and begin working side by side with us in news.

As part of this change, Katharine Bailey is appointed Head of News Initiatives and will oversee digital design, development and new editorial product initiatives in the newsroom. Katharine currently is General Manager for WSJ digital properties, and has played a leading role in the development of many WSJ products over the last few years, including the impending website relaunch. She joined Dow Jones in 2008 from NBC Universal, where she worked in various roles across technology and product in the course of a decade. She will report to Executive Editor Almar Latour.

Che Douglas is appointed head of newsroom digital design and will oversee a team of visual designers and information architects. They will focus on the creation of new digital features and products and will work closely with many of you. Che currently is WSJ Digital Art Director, and prior to that was the founder and creative director of a leading branding and digital design agency in Melbourne, Australia. Che will report to Katharine.

The mobile development team will be led by Kareem Amin, Vice President of Product, News Corp, and will work closely with mobile editor David Ho and his team. Together, they will immediately start work on a slew of mobile-focused initiatives. Kareem is on a secondment from News Corp and during his tenure at Dow Jones will report to Dow Jones CTO Paul Meller and collaborate closely with Katharine on all news-related matters.

In addition, a team of web developers will join the newsroom starting July 1st. They will zoom in on developing newsroom tools as well as continuously improving our readers’ digital experience.

This is a very important step forward in our growth as a digital newsroom.  We’re delighted and proud to have such a talented team of digital practitioners joining us in creating the most compelling news products anywhere.

Please join me in welcoming our new newsroom colleagues and wishing them the best of luck in their new responsibilities.