Newsday to expand editorial staff, pages

Newsday on Wednesday announced plans to expand its staff and its print and online coverage of Long Island by adding 37 journalists and about 50 more pages of news and opinion weekly.

Over the next six months the paper will hire journalists for both its print and digital editions, its editor, Debby Krenek, said in an e-mail to staff. It didn't specify how many of the new hires will be reporters or editors. The paper has about 300 newsroom employees.

Among other significant changes, several pages devoted to Long Island news will be added daily. The expansions are expected to begin later this year.

"I'm very excited to announce that we are making this significant investment in people and pages to provide more and stronger coverage for Long Islanders," Krenek said. "Many initiatives will increase town and local coverage in print and provide our online audience with more updates and faster coverage of breaking news around the clock."

Krenek said the investment "was the next step in our ongoing efforts to increase the quantity and depth of the local news and information that Long Islanders value most."

The union representing most of the newsroom employees applauded the move.

The added staff will include a number of community journalists who will focus on local personalities and feature stories as part of the paper's launch of "hundreds" of hyper-local pages online later this month. The local investigations and enterprise reporting staff will expand, as will the opinion section, which will add three people.

Other areas slated to grow include the Sunday LI Life feature section, which will expand to include a weekend version of Explore LI, a mix of stories and listings about Island events. The daily business section will add an extra page and introduce a daily e-mailed newsletter.