Jonathan Landman
Who
Jon Landman is the Times' deputy managing editor. He's currently charged with heading up the paper's online editorial operations.
Backstory
An Amherst grad, Landman attended journalism school at Columbia and worked as a reporter at Newsday and the Daily News before joining the Times as a copy editor in 1987. He worked his way up the greasy pole of the Times newsroom, serving as deputy editor of the Washington bureau and as Metro editor before temporary taking over the arts section in 2004. In 2005, he was tapped to be deputy managing editor, the position he holds today. He may be best known, though, for sounding the alarm about Jayson Blair in 2002, with his famous email, "We have to stop Jayson from writing for the Times. Right now," when Blair was working under him at the Metro section.
Landman managed to avoid blame for Blair's promotion to full reporter in 2001 (despite the fact that he was partly responsible for not checking the rogue reporter's sources) and has since moved up the ranks, thanks in part to his longstanding relationship with Bill Keller, who was installed as executive editor following Howell Raines' ouster in 2003. Keller tapped Landman as the paper's "fix-it man" and asked him lead the paper's internal investigation into Judith Miller. He's now charged with bolstering the paper's online editorial operation.
Of note
While Martin Nisenholtz oversees the Times' internet business and strategic objectives, it's up to Landman to manage the ever-expanding online newsgathering effort. There's little option but to invest resources online; with print revenues declining and online advertising growing, it's the paper's site—along with its stable of glossy magazines—that's expected to make up the difference. To that end Landman has rolled out a slew of online-only features, including video and audio, and a stable of blogs, which started with David Carr's Carpetbagger in 2005 and has grown to include Andrew Ross Sorkin's DealBook, Frank Bruni's Diner's Journal, Cathy Horyn's On the Runway, and, yes, the chess-obsessed Gambit. Recently, the paper unveiled "video letters" to the editor, which means angry readers can now record themselves and send in the video as opposed to settling for a text-only rant.
Board game
Landman is a member of Amherst College's Board of Trustees, along with Richard LeFrak, Joseph Stigliz, and mystery writer Scott Turow.
Personal
Landman lives on the Upper West Side with his wife, former ABC News producer Bonnie Van Gilder, and their two children, Rachel and Aaron.