A New Head of Visuals for International

There was a time, not that long ago, when producing a visually ambitious story on the International desk was an event. We do it almost every day now. The Times has become a place where the most complex international stories find new forms and where strong visual coverage is the expectation rather than the exception.

That has helped put the reporting of our correspondents in front of more people than ever before. And yet, this transformation is incomplete. We've changed how we think about coverage, but our instincts and our priorities, our resources and our workflows still tilt heavily toward text, which means we're not as nimble as we need to be when audience habits are changing quickly. There's more work to do and opportunities abound.

That is why we're so excited to announce that Josh Keller is taking on a new role as head of International visuals. Most editors shape coverage. A few are able to change the culture around them. Josh has done both, and it is that quality that makes him the right person for what comes next.

He made visual reporting a priority for the desk on the biggest international storylines of the past decade, from China's rise to the Covid pandemic to devastating wars on several continents, re-engineering both how news is gathered and how it is presented. He and his many partners created much of our most ambitious visual work: documenting the faulty studs that brought down the Mexico City metro , explaining how a superyacht sank , tracing how air pollution falls unequally on the poorest neighborhoods of New Delhi. He left his mark on coverage recognized with big awards: the Covid pandemic , Russia's invasion of Ukraine , the conflict in Israel and Gaza , the war in Sudan .

Along the way, he built his visual judgment and credibility in ways that run across all the visual disciplines. Working closely with Graphics, Photo and Video, he fostered the development of formats built around visual reporting. His excellent teams in London and Seoul showed how visual journalists can be integrated on a major news desk. And he greatly strengthened the ties among our text editors, correspondents, graphics reporters and other visual journalists. Now, these kinds of collaborations are integral to the regular rhythm of our international coverage.

In his new role, Josh will build on this foundation. He will guide visual journalism for International - graphics, video, photo and the formats that grow from them - and knit our reporting together for maximum impact. He'll focus first on video, working with Solana Pyne and the Video department to build it into the DNA of the International desk and make it core to what we assign, edit and publish. We'll have more to say soon about what this looks like, including new hires and experiments that showcase our correspondents doing their work on the ground. But for now, we want to share our excitement that Josh is bringing his experience, creativity and vision to this assignment, one of the most challenging and important in the newsroom.

Congratulations, Josh!

- Phil and Steve