The New York Times is reassigning its pop music, theater, television and classical music critics as part of a plan to bring “new perspectives” to coverage.
In a memo to employees on Tuesday obtained by Deadline, Culture Editor Sia Michel wrote that those impacted will be Jon Pareles, chief pop music critic since 1988; Jesse Green, theater critic since 2017; Margaret Lyons, television critic since 2016; and Zach Woolfe, classical music critic since 2022. The Times will be searching for new critics on their beats.
“While it has long been the practice in the newsroom to shift the roles of reporters, editors and bureau chiefs to bring different ideas and experience to important beats and coverage areas, we’ve done this far less with our roster of critics,” Michel wrote. “But it is important to bring different perspectives to core disciplines as we help our coverage expand beyond the traditional review.”
Michel credited the critics with expanding beyond the traditional review into new visual and video projects and features.
“These achievements are thanks to the vision, dedication and hard work of all of you,” Michel wrote. “Now we are at another inflection point. We need to meet it with even more change, in terms of what we cover, how to appeal to a growing national and international audience, how we approach criticism and how we set ourselves up for even greater success with our current and future audiences.”
Michael wrote that they will be announcing the critics new roles soon. Variety first reported on the Times’ culture desk changes.
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