Abramson out as NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

Addressed in the memo:

But its overwhelming tone is one of alarm.

“While we receive accolades for our digital efforts like ‘Snowfall,’ we nevertheless are at risk of becoming known as a place that does not fully understand, reward, and celebrate digital skills,” the report warns.

As a result, the report says, the paper has been losing talented staffers and been unable to recruit others. Upworthy’s former head of promotion, Michael Wertheim, turned down a job at Times, the report says.

“For anyone in that role to succeed, the newsroom had to be fully committed to working with the business side,” Wertheim told the report’s authors.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

37 Ways That Crimea Resembles Betty White's Cat

By Jeremy W. Peters

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

They should hire Jim Brady then.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

I am not an expert on The New York Times, past or present. I worked there only 20 years and took a generous and voluntary buyot in 2010. Since then, I've taught a lot of journalism classes, most recently "Journalism Inquiry" at N.Y.U.

When the most recent Pulitzer Prizes were announced, I told my students I had an ominous feeling about The Times. Although it won two for photography, it won none for writing and reporting. "This does not bode well for top editors there," I told my students.

I can't help but wonder if this was one of many factors in Jill Abramson's abrupt sacking. Since the summer of 2001, The Times has had, as executive editors, Joe Lelyveld, Howell Raines, Bill Keller, Jill Abramson and, now, Dean Baquet. If a sports franchise had this much turnover at the top, sports reporters would harshly question the judgment of ownership.

During this period, The Times allowed Judith Miller to be used by Dick Cheney to start a ghastly and unnecessary war whose poisonous effects are being felt to this day. The Times allowed Jayson Blair to fabricate and plagiarize stories, a fiasco about which documentaries are still produced. The Times allowed a two-woman lynch mob in the sports department to push a false Duke lacrosse rape story that gave even Fox News the chance to attack the Times' journalistic judgment and integrity.

That said, The Times is still by far the best news operation in the United States and, perhaps, the world. Each day, it runs dozens of stories of the highest quality with insight that enlightens readers and set the news agenda for other, lesser operations . It performs traditional journalism, for the most part, with integrity and a genuine and high-minded sense of fairness and thoroughness.

But it also is caught up in the roiling, churning world of 21st. Century journalism in which facts of even proven science are dismissed as "liberal opinion" and sucker-punches by cheap-shot artists have replaced sober, reasoned commentary in print, on line and on television. The Abramson affair -- with its angles of money, gender, office politics -- has many of the "hooks" that give a story "legs." Books and even plays will be written about this episode. As a former Timesman who still admires the institution, I pray The Times emerges from this era with its power and glory intact, no matter the "platform" it presents its stories going forward.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

If there's a play, I am so there. They could call it the Timesing of the Shrew.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

Brilliant.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

I would hope that the end result is not rushing 3,000-word takeouts just to make it to smartphones by a certain time, or downplaying stories that don't have a video with them. Maybe this is all cover for getting the business side more involved in editorial, painting it as a matter of survival.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

As an avid reader I would add that in that time they also let what was a top sports
department bleed into mediocrity.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

Auletta:

Bringing in a lawyer, in particular, seems to have struck them as especially combative. Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Times, argued that there was no real compensation gap, but conceded to me that “this incident was a contributing factor” to the firing of Abramson, because “it was part of a pattern.” (Update: Murphy wrote to me after this post went up to dispute this. Her quote is accurate and in context, as I’ve confirmed in my notes. However, she now e-mails: “I said to you that the issue of bringing a lawyer in was part of a pattern that caused frustration. I NEVER said that it was part of a pattern that led to her firing because that is just not true.”)

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/05/jill-abramson-and-the-times-what-went-wrong.html?mobify=0

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

This firing has become a big topic on the cables but you
really have to wonder how many people even care or ever
heard of Jill Abramson.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

I would guess the "Morning Joe" crowd has, and I'm including shows like it, largely because she was a semi-frequent guest. I found her to be supremely uninteresting.

 

Re: Abramson out and NYT editor, Baquet replaces her

Very few Boom, but the few who do are among the elite (in the social sciences sense of the word, not a pejorative) who have a large role in influencing the lives of those who never heard of her. It is not a stretch to say that the executive editor of the New York Times is a consulting assignment editor for the smallest local TV operations in the U.S. I couldn't tell you the name of the CEO of Wal-Mart off the top of my head, but I damn well know he or she is important.