The New York Times announced today that effective January 1 it was promoting its longtime design director and assistant managing editor, Tom Bodkin, to deputy managing editor.
Bodkin, who has been the paper’s design director since 1987, will continue to oversee a team of 130 art directors, Web designers, graphic designers and others responsible for crafting the look and feel of the paper and its Web site.
“Tom Bodkin plays an essential role as our art and design guru and is one of my most valued and trusted masthead advisers,” [Executive editor] Jill Abramson said in an e-mail to the staff. “He is central to all of our future efforts in digital and print and to the integration of our work.”
A native of New York City who attended Brown University, Bodkin began his career as a designer for the CBS Broadcast Group and served as an art director at Us Magazine. He joined The Times in 1980 as an art director of the Home section. In 1994, he was named an associate managing editor and, in 2000, became assistant managing editor.
“As we explore exciting, new forms of storytelling on advanced digital platforms, I am particularly pleased by this promotion’s reaffirmation of The New York Times’s commitment to excellence in design and user experience,” Bodkin said to Times Media Decoder reporter Amy Chozik.