The New York Times hires Jason Sobel as chief technology officer

The New York Times has hired Jason Sobel, previously the head of infrastructure at Airbnb, as its new chief technology officer.

Details: Sobel will report directly to the company’s chief executive officer, Meredith Kopit Levien, per a statement. Before Airbnb, Sobel worked at Facebook for six years.

What they're saying: "Technology is central to our journalism and business ambitions and one of the most important drivers of our subscription growth," Kopit Levien said in a statement.

“In Jason, we’ve found the ideal leader and executive partner to take us on the next leg of our technological journey.”

The big picture: Sobel joins the Times at an inflection point for the company.

• The 169-year-old paper has made substantial investments in technology both, in the newsroom and in business operations.
• The company has launched several new interactive journalism features and has built its own first-party data platform.
• The Times today employs more engineers than any other role at the company, other than journalists.
• More than 650 tech workers at the Times in April said they were forming a union. The company’s management said it would not voluntarily recognize a union, but would support the tech workers vote to unionize via an official National Labor Relations Board election.

Sobel is the latest leadership hire by to focus on tech, data and product.

• In 2019, Kopit Levien hired new product veteran Alex Hardiman as the company's head of product.

What's next: Sobel starts August 23.