Hot Times news! (Maybe! Google isn't telling us if it's been announced elsewhere. Damn you, stupid python.) In the course of one of those "Talk to the Newsroom" conversations with Metro editor Joe Sexton (they do too cover New York!), the following question comes over the wire:

Q. The Times has a tradition of Metro columnists. Sometimes you hire them; sometimes you give staff members Metro columns. Are you planning to fill the slot left vacant by Dan Barry's move to a national column? Might we see Jim Dwyer? — John Nolan, Chicago

A. Dear John: You are a discerning and prescient reader. Jim Dwyer, who previously has written columns for New York Newsday and The Daily News, will start writing the About New York column within the month.

So there you have it. Jim Dwyer will be writing the About New York column. And the dude is good—he's got fans as far away as Chicago!

Talk to the Newsroom:
Metropolitan Editor Joe Sexton [NYT]