Marc Lavallee, Editor of Interactive News for the New York Times, had the following to say when asked about his most important piece of advice for the audience at WAN-IFRA Latam 2015

“Survival in this industry requires taking your org chart, ripping it up and building a new one.”

That aside, Lavallee shared with the audience how the Times approaches interactivity for its readers and his group’s relationship with the rest of the organization. The internal teams devoted to just the four functions of interactive news, video, graphics and news design require 80 to 90 people – this is the practical benchmark to bear in mind when a news organization wants to consider what it takes to have a full news technology team in-house.

Understanding how these functions relate to the process of gathering and reportiing news is a balancing act. “It’s not something where you figure it out, set it, and it stays that way for a long time,” Marc said. These dynamics evolve weekly, daily and even hourly.

Marc also told us that from where he sits, product evolution definitely drives how job titles and responsibilities evolve. One of the biggest challenges as media technologists is spending time that does not provide value because it is too far removed from whatever makes a story relevant to the audience, while what drives relevance also evolves.

“It’s a cliche to say the only constant is change, but I think the pace of change will accelerate,” he said.

Chronicle by Ulysses de la Torre