The New York Times announces promotion for Mariya Abdulkaf

Mariya Abdulkaf

I’m delighted to announce that Mariya Abdulkaf has been promoted to editor, Video Audience.

Since joining The Times in 2022 as part of the Video department’s leadership team, Mariya has played an integral role in Video expansion and experimentation. She’s done an impressive job of wrangling data from numerous sources to blend the art and science of video audience development and she’s partnered with Product as we’ve scaled, ensuring that we become a destination for people who want to consume news in video formats.

She has built dashboards to track news video performance across on-site and off-platform, and created systems to measure impact over time. She established performance benchmarks to inform strategy and led initiatives that increased the reach and engagement of our news videos. In parallel, she has partnered with the Product team to build features for video, helping to shape improvements to our onsite video experience. She has also led projects across YouTube and TikTok to expand our audience there and has worked closely with the Audio team to guide their strategy, as video podcasts have become a growing part of our visual storytelling.

“Mariya is thoughtful and diligent, the kind of person who immediately and collaboratively works to solve any problem she sees,” said Solana Pyne, Video director. “Her work has been essential in building tools to measure video performance and set benchmarks towards our greater success.”

In her new expanded role, Mariya will report to me and continue to work closely with the Video department. She will bring her expertise to more parts of the newsroom, as video continues to grow. She will refine and build strategies to support video growth on-site and off-platform, setting audience and editorial goals in collaboration with video leaders across the company. She’ll also partner with Product and Engineering teams to improve both our video UX and analytics tools, leveraging audience insights and viewer behavior to inform the next phase of our onsite video experience.

Before joining The Times, Mariya worked at The Verge, where she helped define its video strategy. She was instrumental in expanding its YouTube presence, optimizing for discovery and sharing, and developing the team’s approach to scripting, editing and visual storytelling for platforms like Instagram and TikTok. She also led a range of on-site and off-platform video initiatives, including special projects, sponsorships, product development, analytics, and developed The Verge’s video S.E.O. strategy.

Congratulations, Mariya!