Protecting local flank, NYT expands City Room Blog

As The Wall Street Journal moves deeper onto its local turf, The New York Times said today that it's beefing up its two-year-old City Room Blog, with more features and a new top editor. "In the coming weeks,'' the NYT says in a statement, "City Room will roll out a series of new features, including daily columns that will delve deeply into the workings of major New York City institutions like the police department, the schools and the courts, and an ambitiously expanded daily look at what the city's blogosphere is talking about."

Sewell Chan (left), the founding bureau chief, will be moving to a new assignment within the Times. His replacement will be Andy Newman, a veteran Times reporter, "who has excelled in both the print newspaper and its online enhancements,'' the paper says.

The Times' move follows the WSJ's reported decision last fall to open a New York City bureau, staffed with about a dozen reporters.

City Room mixes original reporting with reader conversations. Among the website's most active blogs, it posted 3,314 items and received 82,535 comments last year. Since inception, it has consistently ranked among the paper's top five most popular blogs.

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[Photo: NYT Co.]