NYTimes biz desk expands while other departments are cut

John Koblin of the New York Observer looks Wednesday at the New York Times business desk, which has been expanding while other news departments at the paper are being downsized.

Koblin writes, “Over the past six months, the paper has hired more than a dozen journalists to work for it, most recently plucking the New York Post’s mergers and acquisitions reporter, Zachery Kouwe, to come work under Andrew Ross Sorkin at DealBook. Other hires have included Ben White from the Financial Times, Vindu Goel, Sam Grobart, Claire Cain Miller and Ashlee Vance.

“So—what’s this magical ‘investment fund,’ and where can we get one?

“‘We’ve gotten money budgeted to invest in business verticals on the Web site this year—economics, green business, small business, expanded technology,’ wrote Mr. Keller in an e-mail to Off the Record. ‘The money has gone to hire a small number of editors, reporters and producers. Most of the vertical expansions are already launched, and some of their work has appeared in the printed page as well.’

“As far as where it comes from, he said: ‘The money is in the digital budget, which (as part of the integration of the newsroom) is merging with the newsroom budget.’

“So … that’s the investment fund! So does this mean that digital products that produce traffic results are immune from the budgetary constraints of the rest of the paper? (And are we really asking a different question than Mr. Keller’s questioner asked?)

“Not that it doesn’t make sense: In September—no doubt because of the credit crisis—the newly launched Economy section had four million page views in its debut month. But it does seem to indicate that the horse and the cart of print and Web have reached a new kind of accommodation.”

Read more here.