• by Sara Guaglione , November 1, 2019

NBC News Digital plans to grow its team by 20% over the next year, as it preps to enhance its digital streaming service.

NBC News NOW is expected to offer 24 hours of live programming this spring, according to Axios, which first reported the news. About 70 jobs will be added across multiple departments in the next year.

NBC News Digital will add staff and resources to its science, tech and climate coverage instead. The division is also shuffling some leadership roles, and creating a new set of teams, according to Axios.

It is also forming news programming and video operations teams. The news programming team will curate and alert all text/video experiences for NBC News, MSNBC and the global news service, when it launches. The video operations team will support end-to-end production of live and on-demand video.

Catherine Kim will become global head of digital news, overseeing NBC News, MSNBC and the upcoming global news service.

Ashley Parrish will become head of content development at Today Digital.

There are also changes to the existing digital structure.

NBCLeft Field, the digital video studio formed in 2017, is shuttering. About a dozen staff members were affected Tuesday.

NBC will also shut down the Mach brand, the science and tech vertical launched in 2017, as part of an effort to give certain topics on the NBC News site more dedicated branding.

Separately, about 150 of NBC News Digital’s editorial staff is seeking to unionize. Chris Berend, executive vice president of digital for NBC News Group, wrote in a memo to staff this week: “We will address this request quickly, and will keep you updated every step of the way.”