How the L.A. Times is Introducing New Beats and Platforms to Grow its Audience

When the Los Angeles Times announced in June that it was hiring a reporter, Dexter Thomas, to cover Black Twitter, the Internet had many opinions and was not shy about expressing them.     The reactions to the new hire were mixed, but the new beat, which covers not only Black Twitter but also other minority communities online, was part of an effort led by S. Mitra Kalita, the Times’ managing editor for editorial strategy, to rethink the types of stories the paper covers.