A little management shuffle at The New York Times. Executive Editor Bill Keller put out the word today that Managing Editor Jill Abramson will take a six-month leave from her job to run the news side of the digital world beginning June 1.

In her place, three top Times people will rotate through her M.E. duties during her time elsewhere -- Washington Bureau Chief Dean Baquet, Business Editor Larry Ingrassia and Foreign Editor Susan Chira. This will likely give Times watchers some speculation to chew on for a while.

But Keller claims (in his memo below) that it is no sign of pending changes.

We shall see.

Colleagues:

Beginning June 1, Jill is going to take a six-month detour from the traditional Managing Editor role to run the news part of the Website and to fully immerse herself in the digital part of our world. Her aim will be to push our integration to the next level, which means mastering all aspects of our digital operation, not only the newsroom digital pipeline but also the company's digital strategy in all its ramifications. During this time she will largely disengage from day-to-day news coverage.

We have invited three editors -- Larry Ingrassia, Dean Baquet and Susan Chira -- each to fill in for two months as acting Managing Editor for News. Larry will step up for June and July, Dean for August and September, and Susan for October and November.

No doubt this rotation will be widely analyzed, interpreted and speculated about. (I look forward to hearing and reading a lot of entertaining nonsense.) The real purpose is threefold: 1) to give us a chance to see some of our best editors applying their talents to the entire news report, in print and online, rather than to specific departments; 2) to give these editors a break, a digression, a cobweb-clearing, an adventure; and 3) to allow deputies in their departments to show what they can do with a couple months of greater authority and autonomy.

At the end of these sojourns, we expect the substitutes to return to their department a little smarter and a little refreshed. Jill will return to the ME job ready to guide the final lap of newsroom integration.

Best,

Bill