Communicators: Keep up with NYT, NPR changes

Change is afoot everywhere in journalism, but at heavy-hitters like the New York Times and NPR, you might need a scorecard and some popcorn to keep 'em straight. Here, some updates and background to share with your media relations team:

At the New York Times:

• Shifts in science, 9/11 coverage: The Times has a new science editor, Barbara Strauch, who formerly edited health coverage; former science editor Laura Chang will oversee the cross-departmental coverage of the tenth anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11. Both shifts take place next week, March 15. The science role isn't limited to the weekly science section, and oversees science, health and environment reporting throughout the paper.
• Renaming and reframing: The magazine has begun a major overhaul, one that will be phased in over several weeks. Yahoo! News has a sneak peek at changes at the NYT magazine, from renaming the letters column "Reply All" to a monthly column by a physician and a photographer Q-and-A coming in as regular features. Not all features will be weekly, suggesting greater variety over time.
• Editors' credits emerge: The magazine also has begun including editor credits, in addition to reporter bylines. Nieman Labs thinks editor credits are a good thing, helpful for accountability, though others disagree. NL also looks at the credits' format, which includes editorial email addresses.
• Pulling content from the social sphere: I've read plenty of Times coverage that viewed social media askance, with a type of "this is still happening?" tone. But this weekend, the New York Times magazine published an essay, "The Tire Iron and the Tamale," that would be great content anywhere: It's a heart-tugging, beautifully written personal essay. It just so happens that they found it on Reddit.com, a social site, a move that's already getting good reviews.

At NPR:

• Online audience doubles at NPR: NPR CEO Vivian Schiller spoke this week at the National Press Club (video at the link), noting that 34 million people listen to an NPR member station each week, for an average six hours per week. Online, she said, the network reaches 17 million people per month--a doubling over 2010.
• NPR has changed its comments policy for npr.org. New users will be monitored and moderated until it's clear they are abiding by comments policies, or if they are the subject of complaints from other users.While fewer than 2 percent of the 450,000 registered users abuse the commenting in some way, the move is an effort to reassure the 98 percent who follow the rules. You can keep up with similar changes on NPR's inside blog.
• NPR's Facebook page, 1.4 million fans strong and growing, yields a wide range of unusual insights. Users of the NPR Facebook page differ from its website users, according to the results of an in-depth survey. If nothing else, consider this a model for how you might measure your own FB page.

Stand by for more changes, and feel free to share your observations in the comments. (Photo from churl's photostream on Flickr)

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