“Let’s not be coy,” they wrote. “The changes will lead to fewer editors at The Times.”

In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Baquet acknowledged that The Times had long valued its meticulous editing, and reducing its editor ranks represented a “significant cultural transformation.” But, he said, “I do not believe that eliminating some of that editing will make us a lesser institution.”

The plan to cut back on editors reflects a broader effort by legacy publications to streamline their operations and align themselves with leaner digital media companies, which built their newsrooms without the kind of multilayered editing process inherent in print production.

“If you look at any newsroom that was built for a digital environment, they don’t have anything like the editing structure that The Times has,” said Joshua Benton, the director of the Nieman Journalism Lab. “On the one hand, that is something that The Times is differentiated through. But on the other hand, if you do need to become more efficient, then some reduction there does make sense.”

Mr. Baquet and Mr. Kahn said in their note that the shift to digital publishing demanded a “smaller and more focused newsroom,” but added that the reconfiguration should be viewed as “a necessary repositioning of The Times’s newsroom, not as a diminishment.” An announcement about downsizing in the newsroom will come in the first half of the year, Mr. Baquet said.

Their note also laid out some concrete steps for various projects, including a plan to invest $5 million toward covering the incoming president, Donald J. Trump, and his administration.

The report coincides with a series of broader changes at The Times, including a reimagining of the print newspaper; an aggressive international expansion; a heightened emphasis on graphics, podcasts, video and virtual reality; the $30-million purchase of the product recommendation site The Wirecutter and its sibling, The Sweethome; and changes in top newsroom management. The Times also recently appointed A.G. Sulzberger as deputy publisher, positioning him to succeed his father, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., as publisher.

Many of the initiatives are intended to support an ambitious goal that The Times laid out in October 2015: to double its digital revenue, to $800 million in 2020 compared with $400 million in 2014. Last year, the report says, The Times generated nearly $500 million in purely digital revenue.