New York Times Expands Opinion Shows Team With Video, Audience Hires.

The New York Times is expanding its Opinion Shows team with four hires focused on audience growth and video production, while also reshuffling responsibilities around “The Ezra Klein Show” as it continues building its slate of audio and video programming. The moves come as the newspaper continues putting greater emphasis on video versions of its opinion and podcast programming.

Ali Baluch joins Opinion Shows as audience strategy editor, bringing a background that spans digital strategy, political campaigns, sports, comedy and television production. Most recently an associate producer at MTV, Baluch worked on segment development, production schedules, licensing and distribution across MTV and Paramount+ social platforms. His earlier work included projects for HBO Max, Nickelodeon, New Balance, On Running and the Los Angeles Clippers, as well as two Streamy Awards for audience-building work.

Kyle Kelley has been hired as a cinematographer, adding more than 15 years of experience in documentary and narrative filmmaking. His work has appeared on HBO, PBS and Bloomberg and at festivals including SXSW and DocNYC. Kelley was director of photography for the 2020 “Axios on HBO” interview with President Trump, which won a News & Documentary Emmy, and he also worked on the Emmy-winning documentary “Can’t Look Away.”

The Times also added two podcast video editors. Kristen Williamson joins after serving as a senior video editor at the Daily Mail, where she worked on long-form documentaries and YouTube explainers while helping develop new formats for the global shows team. Her earlier work includes stints at Bloomberg Television and Vox Media, as well as editing projects for Netflix, YouTube Originals, Hulu, PBS and CNN+.

Brandon Belk-Yee comes to the Times from Jubilee Media, where he spent seven years editing more than 150 episodes of game shows, debates, social experiments, dating programs and interviews. During his time there, Jubilee’s YouTube channel grew from two million to more than 10 million subscribers.

The department is also making changes around “The Ezra Klein Show.” Senior producer Kristin Lin is moving into a newly created role as West Coast operations lead. Lin will remain within Opinion Shows, helping coordinate production logistics across the department. “Now every Times Opinion show will benefit from Kristin’s operational wizardry,” says the memo announcing the staffing changes.

Emma Kehlbeck, who joined Opinion Shows in 2025 after working on the text-to-audio app Audm and New York Times Audio app teams, has been promoted to producer on “The Ezra Klein Show.” In the role, she will support guest and studio bookings, taping logistics, postproduction and episode publishing.