In the past week, we’ve learned that the paper’s Styles editor, national editor and assistant managing editor were all getting new jobs at the paper. Two of those three editors were moving into reporting positions—reversing the career track normally taken at big news organizations. This comes only a few months after the paper’s culture editor became the paper’s restaurant critic, yet another writing job. So what’s the big idea? Times executive editor Bill Keller has gone to great lengths to argue that these changes do not indicate that his editors are being banished to Siberia.

In the memo announcing that Suzanne Daley would be leaving her job of heading up the paper’s national coverage to take on a “special assignment” reporting on Europe, he said, “I have no doubt she will return to important editing roles. She is too good at it to be away for long.” When he announced Mr. Sifton as the new food writer, he said, “For the record, it is our expectation that this will not be the end of Sam’s career as an editor/manager/entrepreneur/mentor.” And this week when he announced that Trip Gabriel would be leaving as Styles editor to write education enterprise pieces, he said, “We unleash Trip into reporting with the understanding that this is not a departure from editing, but a detour.”

(Also: When Bill Keller announced that Rick Berke, the paper’s assistant managing editor, would leave the masthead to take over the national desk, he said, “And I expect we haven’t seen the last of him on the masthead.” And! And! When Jon Landman left the digital editing role at The Times to replace Mr. Sifton as culture editor, he said, “Jon will not be extracting himself from the Web, not by a long shot.”)

O.K., Bill, we get the point!

Several Times sources said the flurry of changes reflects the fact that a hiring freeze and a lame job market prevented any real movement at the paper. They see the changes as a wake-up call for these individuals, and for the paper.

Mr. Keller said as much, too. “Journalists are disposed to a kind of A.D.D., a restless curiosity,” he said in an email to Off the Record. “While there are, of course, writers who happily specialize for most of a career, one great lure of this work is that you can move from subject to subject, from reporting to editing and back again. So, think of it as pushing the ‘refresh’ button.”

jkoblin@observer.com

After much deliberation, and a fair amount of not-even-in-the-ballpark speculation from Times-obsessed kibbitzers, we have a new culture editor to replace Sam Sifton. He is, I'm delighted to announce, Jon Landman.
Like the appointment of Sam as our new restaurant critic, this is one of those no-brainers that nonetheless requires some explaining because of the broader implications for the newsroom.
After more than four years overseeing the integration of the print and Web newsrooms and the spectacular flowering of journalistic innovation that accompanied it, Jon yearns to get back to running coverage, to refresh his roots. I doubt anyone will question that Jon brings to the Culture Department a strenuous intelligence, an inspiring vision, a gift for getting the very best from people and -- no small thing as our competitive landscape shifts -- a keen appreciation of what culture journalism can be on the Web. He spent a transitional year presiding over the department, implementing a sweeping overhaul of the department and grooming new leadership -- including Sam Sifton -- before he moved to the digital job. We interviewed a number of candidates, and were happily reminded in the process of the wealth of talent in our midst. But we're pretty sure the other candidates would agree that Jon Landman will be an extraordinary culture editor. That's the no-brainer part of the announcement.
While we're on the subject of Culture, we would like to tip our hats to Amy Virshup, who has kept the department functioning at its customary high level in the weeks since Sam moved into vacation and tastebud preparation mode.
We have, of course, given intense thought to what this means for our digital journalism, which is so vibrant a part of our present and so central a part of our future. Our belief is that this is a moment to complete the integration of the newsroom we began five years ago.
As the deputy managing editor for digital, Jon has worked to bring down the psychological barriers, bureaucratic impediments, and we-don't-do-things-that-way attitudes that separated the cultures of new and mainstream newsgathering. He has been a tireless champion of new ways to reach and engage our audience -- journalism by unconventional means. He has advocated the full partnership of digital and print, journalism and technology. He has brought us an enormous distance toward the goal of a single, versatile, journalistic multiplex.
But not quite all the way. In proposing this change, Jon made a strong case that, in the next stage of integration, the support and promotion of this new kind of journalism must become more fully the responsibility of the newsroom's top leadership -- me, Jill and John. He reminded me that in the original proposal for an integrated newsroom -- May, 2005 -- I insisted that it is not enough to create new advocates for Web journalism within the NYT newsroom; the newsroom would be truly integrated only when the top editors took as much responsibility for our digital journalism as they do for the more traditional kind. We've stopped a little short of that ambition, in large part because we had Jon to defer to and depend on. We'll have more to say on this important subject, but the main thing to say now is that Jill and I, in particular, see this as time to rearrange our priorities and devote more of our bandwidth to digital journalism.
Jon will not be extracting himself from the Web, not by a long shot. He will, of course, be deeply engaged in the Web as culture editor. He will also be part of a new advisory group that will work closely with me, Jill and John, counseling us on the continuing development of Nytimes.com and assuring strong advocacy of innovative ways to touch our audience.
Best,
Bill

The paper's TV beat is strong enough to sustain the loss—wunderkind Brian Stelter can easily take up his duties along with the paper's longtime TV maven, Bill Carter—and the paper's education beat can really use the help.

Last October, at The Times' state of the newsroom get-together, Throw Stuff at Bill, Mr. Keller admitted, "When we went through that excruciating exercise to figure out how to lose 100 jobs in the newsroom, we decided we could come down a little bit on the education department." It rankled one staffer, who wondered why the education department had been essentially wiped away, but Mr. Keller reminded her that it's still a priority for two desks—national and Metro.

Since he'll be doing a primarily digital gig now, his announcement memo is written by national editor Suzanne Daley and digital editor Jon Landman.

Here it is:

For almost 20 years, Jacques Steinberg has brought his innate curiosity and limitless enthusiasm to a variety of beats -- from Westchester County, to education, to newspapers. In his six years covering television, he has had encounters with luminaries like Dan Rather, Don Imus and the entire cast of "The View." He wrote about "Mad Men" before anyone knew how hot it would become.

Now, Jacques is taking on a new challenge. He is joining the National Desk’s education team and will be the anchor of a blog about college admissions called The Choice.

As a former education reporter and the author of a book about the admissions process at Wesleyan University called "The Gatekeepers,"

Jacques is uniquely qualified to lead this enterprise. He hopes to create a site that prospective college students and their parents will turn to regularly for information and advice about applying to college and finding the money to pay for it.

He’ll be getting a lot of help from others who cover higher education, including Tamar Lewin of the National Desk, Lisa Foderaro of the Metro Desk, and Jane Karr, editor of Education Life.

The Choice officially launches on Monday (March 30), to capture the moment when high school seniors are receiving their acceptance letters and struggling to decide which school to go to.

And Jacques is asking for your help. If you’re at any stage of this process -- starting a college savings fund; mapping out a summer college tour for your high school junior; dealing with the prospect of your triplets leaving the nest -- please let him know at [redacted]. We’re hoping some staff members could be coaxed into telling parts of their stories to a wider audience.

Suzanne Daley and Jonathan Landman

That represents another single-day record.

And that's not all. While writing about The Times' two environmental blogs—Dot Earth and Green Inc.—Mr. Landman boasts that the Web site has taken a page from the Gawker Media handbook:

And! When digital news editor Jim Roberts wrote a farewell memo to Times' blogger Mike Nizza (who's going to The Atlantic), he concluded his memo by quoting a Gawker commenter:

Well, technically speaking, he doesn't name any of those people in his weekly memo, or the paper itself, but in his weekly briefing designed to discuss accomplishments for nytimes.com, he comes out swinging! Namely, he says wsj.com has accomplished nothing!

As Mr.Landman writes:

Here's what Mr. Landman wrote back in April reminding Mr. Murdoch about this "challenge:"

(The original challenge can be found here.)

Robert Thomson said the Web page would be redesigned in the fall, and we're suddenly giddy over a new, digital war! Forget newsstand sales! Topic Pages is the prize now!

Here's the memo in its entirety:

Landman apparently met with Downie last week, though the nature of the visit isn't clear. Landman sent Calderone an e-mail saying, "I won't confirm, deny or discuss."

O.K., but we will! Calderone reports that Landman now joins a short list of candidates that includes Newsweek's Jon Meacham, ex-Journal editor Marcus Brauchli, Post columnist David Ignatius and Post managing editor Philip Bennett.

The "second-biggest premiere" status places the newsletter's debut below Borat—but above Volver! The memo follows.

In the April 10 issue, the Observer reported, based on documents obtained by the Rocky Mountain News, that the Times might take advantage of a window in its agreement with Discovery Communications that would allow the paper to sell its stake.

—Gabriel Sherman