Twitter hires New York Times editor at large for its Moments channel

One week after announcing major layoffs, Twitter is hiring New York Times editor at large Marcus Mabry to help develop editorial direction for its new Moments section.

Could not be more excited to join the team at @twitter and @TwitterMoments!

— Marcus Mabry (@marcusmabry) October 20, 2015

Moments, formerly known as Project Lightning, is a curated feed of news and conversations happening on the Twitter platform. The big goal is to attract new users, which has been a major challenge for the company.

This is the latest big announcement from Twitter after Dorsey’s official appointment as CEO at the beginning of the month. Since taking on the role he has been cleaning house — first announcing staff cuts and then hiring former Googler Omid Kordestani to be executive chairman.

Hiring Mabry is no doubt an important part of making Moments more consumable. Though the new section surfaces some of the most interesting content on Twitter, there are questions about how relevant the editorial choices are to Twitter’s diverse users. As an editor for the New York Times, Mabry no doubt understands how to appeal to a broad national audience.

Prior to joining Twitter, Mabry was editing the Times‘ “Watching” section, which aggregates interesting stories both from its own site and from other publications. He’s also well versed in creating content for the Web. Mabry worked as a video anchor, business editor, and national editor while at the Times. His brainchild, “Race Remixed,” was a 2011 series that led him to work on a blog for the International Herald Tribune as well as the Times‘ news blog. Before joining the Times, Mabry spent 19 years at Newsweek.