Storylines becomes Discovery, welcomes Elena Hecht; new name reflects mission to help readers explore The New York Times offerings

Three years ago, the Storylines team was formed with the goal of helping readers to better navigate through topics both on and off the home page.

Since then, our purview has expanded to include much more than programming the Storylines system. We now oversee features programming on the home page, coordinate with the News Desk on timing and special event packaging, partner with colleagues on Home and in Product on new user experiences and experiments, and continue our Storylines mandate to guide readers across coverage — particularly broad and complex topics.

Our new name, Discovery, captures the underlying mission of all that we do: help readers discover all that The Times has to offer. We aim to ensure readers are informed, delighted and captivated by what they expect to find from The New York Times, and what they don’t yet know we offer.

Home Discovery’s first act is welcoming our newest staff editor, Elena Hecht. Elena comes to us from the Narrated Article Production team (formerly known as Audm), where she worked as deputy director for two and a half years. She previously oversaw the programming and curation of the Audm app, led its audio production team and coordinated with The New York Times Audio App team and external partners.

Her former manager, Nina Lassam, had this to say about Elena, “Elena’s tenure managing the production workflow of our narrated articles team oversaw several large structural changes and broad expansion of responsibilities. She set the industry standard for high quality narrated article production, and we will miss her attention to detail and incredibly kind and thoughtful management of partners big and small. We’re so excited for her opportunity and grateful she will still be at The Times.”

Welcome Elena to team Home Discovery!