As City Room Ends, Times Must Find New Ways to Innovate

The New York Times is saying goodbye to what was once one of its most ambitious projects for the digital age: City Room, the blog about all things New York City, and the home for quirky and often participatory news that didn’t seem quite Timesian enough for treatment as bona fide Times articles.

In a note to readers on Tuesday announcing its demise, the blog’s authors promised: “We are not really dying: Our DNA has spread throughout the newsroom.” But that is only half right. The Times was innovative when blogging was considered digital innovation, but now the paper needs to do even more.