John McDuling for Quartz writes about the FiveThirtyEight replacement.
David Leonhardt, the Times’ former Washington bureau chief, who is in charge of The Upshot, told Quartz that the new venture will have a dedicated staff of 15, including three full-time graphic journalists, and is on track for a launch this spring. “The idea behind the name is, we are trying to help readers get to the essence of issues and understand them in a contextual and conversational way,” Leonhardt says. “Obviously, we will be using data a lot to do that, not because data is some secret code, but because it’s a particularly effective way, when used in moderate doses, of explaining reality to people.”
With the new FiveThirtyEight coming soon, The Upshot, and plenty of smaller bits sprouting up in other areas, this data-driven news thing might be more than a fad. Hey, statisticians, you want to get in on this? Seriously, there’s plenty of data to go around.
