One of the most coveted seats in American journalism already has a new occupant.
Joe Kahn will replace Dean Baquet as director of
The New York Times
when he ends his eight years at the head of the New York information institution in June, according to what the newspaper itself reported on Tuesday.
The bet seems safe: Kahn, a man of the house, has worked as a correspondent in China, has a Pulitzer Prize, has led the International section, worked on the successful digitization of the newspaper, an example for newsrooms around the world, and since 2016 he has been
number two
on the newspaper.
In his appointment has weighed the work of Kahn, 57, in the conversion of the venerable Gray Lady, the name by which the
Times
is known in the North American media universe with a mixture of envy and veneration, from a newspaper printed to a digital transatlantic, which this year will be 171 years old and employs a record number of 1,700 journalists.
Kahn has worked to redirect editorial efforts from the paper edition to the web edition.
The business statement also credits him with betting on breaking news and visual journalism, for increasing the weight of videos and
podcasts
, and he has overseen international expansion to conquer Asian and European markets.
“For many, especially those who have worked alongside Joe – a brilliant journalist and a brave and principled boss – this announcement will come as no surprise;
he brings impeccable news judgment, a sophisticated understanding of the forces that dominate the world, and a long history of helping the journalists under his charge make their work shine as more ambitious and courageous,” wrote
The New York Times
editor , AG Sulzberger, to his staff in an internal statement on Tuesday afternoon.
"Dean told me recently that he was convinced that Joe was the most capable editor he knew to take charge of a global newsroom [such as
The New York Times],
which has grown in size, complexity and ambition."
"We don't know where the political current will take us over time," Kahn explains in reference to the growing polarization in which the United States is plunged, in the interview that accompanies the news of his appointment.
"Instead of pursuing that, we want to commit and recommit to being independent."
Baquet leaves the front line of
The New York Times
at the age of 65.
It is not yet known what he will do next, although, according to what Sulzberger has communicated to his employees, he will continue to be associated with the New York newspaper, "in an innovative adventure."
The era of Donald Trump, during which
the masthead
he redoubled his efforts to monitor the president, and the pandemic, which forced the media around the world to reinvent itself, have marked the eight years at the helm of the first black director in the history of the newspaper.
Among his achievements are the investigations into film producer Harvey Weinstein in the case that lit the Me Too fuse, and those that ended the career of Fox News presenter Bill O'Reilly, who was accused of sexual harassment.
When it arrived in 2014, the header had 966,000 digital subscribers.
Today it is close to 10 million, according to the calculations of the newspaper itself.
Baquet, who had already been the director of another great benchmark,
the Los Angeles Times
—although for a very short space of time;
he left after a year and a half, for refusing to make personnel cuts—accepted the assignment after the abrupt resignation of Jill Abramson, the first woman to hold the position.
In the Baquet era, the
Times
has won 18 Pulitzer Prizes and has taken the lead in almost every innovative manifestation of contemporary journalism: from
newsletters
to
podcasts
, from crossword puzzles and cookbooks to data analysis and the production of documentaries, a field in which they garnered their first Oscar this year with the documentary short film
The Queen of Basketball
about pioneering American basketball player Lucy Harris.