Dean Baquet

The rumors are running wild in D.C. that sometime later this week, Post editor Leonard Downie will take a buyout and step down. A short-list of candidates is making its way around, and Michael Calderone at Politico sizes it up.  read more »

For the first time in decades, The New York Times has a new Supreme Court reporter.

Adam Liptak, the Times' national legal reporter, is taking over the position Linda Greenhouse—who covered the beat, off and on, for 30 years—vacated in February after taking a $300,000 buyout. Before Mr. Liptak was a reporter, he was a lawyer for the paper. He joined the newsroom in 2002.

Here's the memo from Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet:  read more »

L.A. Times May Have Dumped Grazer, But It Could Have Been Rummy    read more »

L.A. Times May Have Dumped Grazer, But It Could Have Been Rummy    read more »

The New Yorker's Ken Auletta began this morning's all-star media panel, held at the W Hotel in midtown, with a question for McClatchy CEO Gary Pruitt.

Would he have fired Dean Baquet from the Los Angeles Times?

"I doubt it," he responded, "but I have no idea."

Laughter ensued, not simply because of the query, legitimate in light of Baquet's fallout with L.A. Times parent, the Tribune Company. It had more to do with Mr. Baquet, now New York Times D.C. bureau chief, being flanked by the two men.

All three were on stage, for roughly 90 minutes, to discuss the fate of the newspaper industry, the latest gathering of Syracuse University's Newhouse School in New York.

Unsurprisingly, Si was sitting right up front.  read more »

Media machers filled the ballroom for the 8 a.m. breakfast, including the New Yorker's David Remnick, Time Warner chief Dick Parksons, and the Ingrassia brothers, Larry and Paul, representing the N.Y. Times and Wall Street Journal, respectively. There was a gaggle of media reporters, as well as other notables like former New York Mayor (and New York Press columnist!) Ed Koch.

On Jan.  read more »

From: Terry Schwadron Date: Jan 30, 2007 Subject: [NYT Newsroom] Message from BILL KELLER

Colleagues:

After guiding The Times through toxic storms and rebuilding our bureau into a dominant force in Washington coverage, Phil Taubman is returning to his first love, the correspondent's life. Phil has chosen a new mission that capitalizes on his deep experience as a foreign correspondent, investigative reporter, military historian and editor.

He will be taking on a special reporting assignment in the area of national security; we've decided to be a little secretive about the details for now for competitive reasons. He will be based in California. He will also be promoted to Associate Editor--a title previously worn by one Times journalist, Johnny Apple. It signifies both Phil's stature as a counselor to the masthead and our expectation that he will return to senior management in the future.

When Phil accepted my invitation to leave the Editorial Page masthead three and a half years ago and take over our largest bureau, he can hardly have imagined what a roller coaster ride awaited him. In the years that followed he helped the paper deal with the imprisonment of a reporter, the murder of a revered colleague, the faceoff with a hostile administration (including one tense session with the President), vilification by partisan critics, and the general anxiety of an industry in transition. His tenure also saw a succession of journalistic triumphs that shook the country and brought a shower of awards. Over the past year Phil presided over a period of ambitious rebuilding and still more ambitious journalism. He leaves behind a bureau in which a cadre of world-class bylines has been enriched by excellent new hires. He leaves behind a great editing team. And he leaves behind a bureau that has taken to heart a mandate for incisive, original, hard-hitting coverage.

And the new chief of that high-octane bureau will be Dean Baquet. Back in 2005, when Dean moved into the top job in Los Angeles, I described him as "a world-class investigator, an inspiring editor and a barrel of fun." It was hard to miss the subtext: "And I miss him."

Since then he has demonstrated that, in addition to being all of those things, he is a charismatic leader, an unflinching advocate of the value and values of professional journalism, and a cool character under fire. It's nice to have him back where he belongs, at a paper where he can devote his talents and enthusiasm fully to the practice of journalism, in a bureau that can rise to all of his expectations.

The many of you who worked with Dean before he left us in the year 2000 know what to expect from a bureau under his leadership:tough-minded, aggressive, fearless reporting, original insights, great craftsmanship and the thrill of competition. He reminds you why you got into this business, and why it matters.

Dean will take over March 5, allowing time for transition and for a little celebration of two great journalists. He will be an Assistant Managing Editor, reflecting both the depth of his experience in the upper echelons of our profession and the cross-departmental importance of the bureau.

There are undoubtedly other consequences that will follow from all of this, and I can't begin to say what they are. But here's one: Felicity Barringer, Phil's accomplice in journalism and in just about everything else, will be taking her intrepid and prescient environmental reporting and beat to California -- which happens to be a kind of national laboratory for environmental policy.

Cheers, Bill

Oh, what a year for newspapers! They’re dying! They’re keeling. They’re ghosts!  read more »

Oh, what a year for newspapers! They’re dying! They’re keeling. They’re ghosts!  read more »

BEIJING—I had just begun haggling for a silk comforter at the Yuexiu Market on Chaoyangmen Str  read more »

The Los Angeles Times two managing editors, Douglas Frantz and Leo C. Wolinsky, will stay behind when new editor Jim O'Shea takes over on Monday.

After the jump are two staff memos, sent out a couple hours after Dean Baquet announced to the newsroom--while standing on a desk--that he was leaving.  read more »

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Los Angeles Times editor Dean Baquet has been forced out by the Tribune Company. Seven minutes after the story was posted on LAObserved, Mr. Baquet sent the following email to the staff:

-----Original Message----- From: Baquet, Dean Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 1:42 PM To: yyeditall Subject:

By now you've seen the Wall Street Journal story on L.A. Observed that I'll be leaving the paper. Believe me, I didn't want it to come out this way. Give me some time, and I'll talk to the entire newsroom later this afternoon, at 3 p.m. outside my office. And do me an even bigger favor. Let's do a hell of a job on the election tonight.

Best,

Dean

On Sept. 21, Los Angeles Times editor Dean Baquet turned 50 years old.  read more »

“I can think of a lot of people,” Dean Baquet said, “who are more capable than I am to be budg  read more »

“I can think of a lot of people,” Dean Baquet said, “who are more capable than I a  read more »

Normally, July 25 would have been a busy day for Dean Baquet, the national editor of The New York Ti  read more »