Alex Hardiman and Hannah Yang Courtesy of The New York Times (2) The New York Times is making some significant changes to its executive ranks, The Hollywood Reporter has learned, promoting a pair of executives as its CTO is set to depart in the coming months, underscoring the news company’s business focus on subscriptions, data and technology under CEO Meredith Kopit Levien.
Levien revealed the changes in a memo to staff Monday morning.
The changes will see New York Times CTO Jason Sobel exiting the company, with Levien telling staff that he informed her of his decision to leave the role late last year. The Times is beginning the search for a successor, with Sobel sticking around until they find one.
Sobel joined the Times in 2021, and is based in California. Levien wrote that “he believes, and I agree, that The Times would be best served in this next chapter by a ranking tech executive who can be present very regularly in our NYC headquarters.”
Alex Hardiman and Hannah Yang will also be promoted to executive VP, with Hardiman adding shared oversight of engineering and Yang adding shared oversight of data at the company. Both executives have also been closely involved in growing the Times‘ subscription business, with Hardiman already overseeing product, cooking and games and Yang overseeing marketing and customer service.
“Alex and Hannah have proven themselves as leaders, collaborators, and executives at The Times,” Levien tells THR in a statement. “Alex is a gifted product and operational leader who helped shape the essential subscription strategy that has driven much of the Times‘ recent commercial success. She’s also been a key leader in our continued embrace of technology to make our journalism and products more engaging and accessible. Hannah embodies mission-driven leadership in a way that has inspired the whole company to keep our subscription business growing and thriving. I couldn’t be more optimistic about what they’ll accomplish with expanded responsibilities from here.”
Hardiman, notably, is also the executive tasked with “working with leaders across the enterprise to use AI ambitiously and responsibly to enhance our human-made journalism, make our products more accessible and useful, and better enable our colleagues in their day to day work,’ Levien wrote to staff.
“As part of that accountability, Alex is marshalling our efforts to develop a cross-company AI product vision, which she’s facilitating on behalf of AG [Times publisher AG Sulzberger], Joe [Times editor Joe Kahn] and me, and with leaders in news and within each of the products in our portfolio,” she added.
Whomever the Times hires as its next CTO will report jointly to Hardiman and Levien, with Levien and Yang jointly overseeing data. The thinking is that by promoting the pair to EVP and giving them key responsibilities alongside the CEO decision-making will be sped up in the company. Both executives already report to Levien, but the new structure will give them added responsibilities.
Levien also announced that Rebecca Grossman-Cohen and Anand Venkatesan will join the company’s executive committee, which sets the direction for the company. Grossman-Cohen had been Levien’s chief of staff and had been leading Times partnerships with tech platforms, including AI companies. She will become senior VP of strategic partnerships and executive operations. Venkatesan is senior VP of strategy and corporate development, including oversight of M&A activity. He will add oversight of the Audience Insights Group.
The changes underscore the priorities of the Times‘ business strategy, with a heavy emphasis on product improvements, subscription growth, and technology investment and innovation, including finding the right ways to use AI at the news organization.
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day
Subscribe Sign Up
