• by Sara Guaglione , August 23, 2018

In an effort to redesign its homepage, The New York Times removed most article bylines, mirroring the white space-heavy look of its mobile design.

“We intend to explore ways to bring bylines into the new experience in more thoughtful ways,” a Times spokesperson told Publishers Daily. “The new home screen enables us to test more easily and it will continue to evolve.”

Bylines for op-ed pieces remain on the homepage, as do all bylines on article pages.  The Times says it wants to highlight “the names of writers more prominently,” according to a post announcing the updates.

The idea is bylines, head shots and more background info about the writers will appear on story pages. In other words, less bylines on the homepage, but more information about the journalist on the article page.

Readers will now have consistency when visiting the site on their phone, tablet or computer, with the same reading experience and grouping of stories.

New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet and managing editor Joe Kahn said  the redesigned desktop version now resembles the mobile layout, which doesn't display bylines above summaries of stories.

“Placing newspaper-style bylines above articles is not always the best way to engage readers or display the most important elements of our journalism,” they wrote in a memo to readers.

The change captured attention from journalists and readers alike — most questioning why reporters’ names were removed from the homepage when the news media’s credibility is under threat. The Times made other changes to its design, too.

New story “packages” allow editors to group related stories with similar themes for readers, giving more context to topics.

While editors will continue to choose the most important stories of the day for the homepage, over time, theywill also supplement those selections with personalized recommended stories for each reader, based on their interests.

The Times product team says it worked with news editors to see what they needed from the  homepage and tested designs with readers to gauge what they wanted from the site.