NY Times names Lattman new media editor, replacing Headlam

New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson sent out the following staff changes on Monday:

Dear Colleagues,

Bruce Headlam, an editor steeped in New York Times journalism, with deep knowledge of multimedia has agreed to direct our ambitious plans to expand our video journalism as Managing Editor of Video.

Bruce, who has headed the media desk for the past five years, pioneered our coverage of new media from the time it was an afterthought for many newspapers to it becoming central to the future of the industry. He built a team of tech savvy reporters, including David Carr, who embraced new media as he covered it. Bruce encouraged innovative ways of covering things digitally as part of his group’s creative daily report while staying true to the core of Times journalism.

In his new role, Bruce will report directly to me and will be in charge of all the journalists in the video department. He will work closely with Rebecca Howard, General Manager of Video Production, who will report directly to Denise Warren, Executive Vice President, Digital Products and Services.

Since joining The Times earlier this year, Rebecca has assembled a talented team that has helped create a growing variety of engaging video content — from the recently launched New York Times Minute to the acclaimed Christine Quinn video to an array of video series including What’s In It and The Read Around.

With most of that team in place, and both the quality and quantity of news and enterprise videos having grown dramatically on nytimes.com and Times mobile apps, Rebecca has increasingly been focusing on building a business — expanding distribution of Times video and growing the awareness of our offerings among advertisers. The new structure will enable her to give full attention to this critical aspect of our video efforts, even as she continues to work with me, Dean and Bruce to develop content that appeals to Times readers.

The team reporting to Bruce will include Michael Rubens, director of video production, who has played a major role in expanding our video horizons since coming to The Times a few months ago, and Ann Derry, editorial director, video partnerships, who is leading our efforts to acquire quality content from around the web as well as looking for opportunities to work with other news organizations.

Peter Lattman will become our new Media Editor. With countless scoops, agile writing, dogged reporting, immense collegiality and a metabolism that makes him one of our most productive reporters, Peter has been at the heart of BizDay for the past 3½ years. When he arrived on DealBook from The Wall Street Journal, he immediately made us competitive on the escalating crackdown on insider trading by the government. He also has pulled back the curtain on the clubby world of big law firms, including the collapse of Dewey & LeBoeuf. He has brought alive the back stories of some of the biggest names on Wall Street, from Raj Rajaratnam to Steven Cohen. All the while, Peter has had immense fun in his story telling, from the first word to the last, leading fellow DealBooker Peter Eavis to declare Peter the “king of the kicker.”

I know Peter will bring those talents to his leadership role in Media.

These changes will take effect on Dec. 2.