NYTimes creates media news department

John Koblin of the New York Observer reports that the media reporters on the New York Times business desk are joining its media reporters on the cultural desk to create a mini-department.

Business editor Larry Ingrassia and culture editor Sam Sifton wrote in a memo, “Convergence is the biggest story in media and entertainment today. Hollywood studios are investing millions in online television, people are reading newspapers on their iPhones and bloggers and YouTube are turning even
presidential election campaigns into homegrown affairs. By the end of the decade, we might all be watching ‘Lost’ on our shoephones.

“Accordingly, we are doing some convergence of our own, and today announce the birth of a new and expanded media desk for The Times, joining reporters and editors from Business Day and Culture under one banner to cover media news for both desks.

“The affable Canadian Bruce Headlam, currently the editor of the Monday edition of Business Day, is the obvious man to lead such a team. He will be joined by Rick Lyman and Steve Reddicliffe off the Culture Desk, and a dozen reporters taken from both departments. (Jennifer Kingson, who has helped Bruce elevate media coverage as Bruce’s deputy in BizDay, will take a new editing assignment on her home desk.) Bruce will report to both Larry Ingrassia, the business editor, and Sam Sifton, the culture editor. The new media desk will be located on the third floor — equidistant from both parents — and it will feed the news needs of both, as well as the feature wells of Sunday Business and Arts & Leisure, among other outlets.”

Read more here.