Bill Keller is stepping down to become a full-time writer for the Times, while managing editor Jill Abramson moves up to executive editor on Sept. 6. Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet will be her managing editor. “Jill and Dean together is a powerful team,” says Keller. “Jill’s been my partner in keeping The Times strong through years of tumult. At her right hand she will have someone who ran a great American newspaper, and ran it through tough times. That’s a valuable skill to have.” || Abramson said last fall that “it would be a healthy, nice thing for the country” to have a female executive editor at the Times. || Read publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.‘s memo and the Times’ release. || The newsroom, journalists react: “Best of luck to a great journalist and boss, @NYTKeller, who is becoming a columnist so he can annoy Twitter full-time. || Geisler: What Abramson’s appointment could mean for women in journalism || Keller/Abramson timelines are after the jump.
A KELLER TIMELINE
JULY 2003: Keller replaces Howell Raines as Times executive editor.
OCTOBER 2005: Keller tells his staff: “I wish we had dealt with the controversy over our coverage of WMD as soon as I became executive editor.”
OCTOBER 2005: Keller’s mea culpa over his handling of “the Judith Miller nightmare” is called smart and admirable.
APRIL 2006: Abramson doubts Internet companies will be the next generation of press barons.
JUNE 2006: On the advice of Jill Abramson, Keller stops reading media blogs.
MAY 2007: Keller predicts Rupert Murdoch will add a magazine to WSJ if he wins the paper.
NOVEMBER 2007: Keller says bloggers and search engines can’t replace reporting.
FEBRUARY 2008: Keller defends his paper’s story about John McCain’s relationship with a female lobbyist.
OCTOBER 2008: Keller tells his staff: “If you’re not comfortable with uncertainty, you’re probably in the wrong racket.”
APRIL 2009: New York Times will be “left standing after the deluge,” Keller says at Stanford.
SEPTEMBER 2009: In five or ten years, “the distinction between mainstream and new media will diminish from both directions,” predicts the Times executive editor.
OCTOBER 2009 Keller does a digital-only experiment for a few weeks.
JANUARY 2011: It’s announced that Keller will write a New York Times Magazine column 30 times a year.
AN ABRAMSON TIMELINE
JUNE 2003: It’s predicted that Craig Whitney and Jill Abramson will someday lead the Times newsroom.
AUGUST 2003: Abramson is named Times managing editor. “She’ll tell me when I’m doing something stupid,” says Keller.
APRIL 2006: Abramson tells the New York Sun the hunger for quality journalism isn’t diminishing.
SEPTEMBER 2006: Abramson talks with Charlie Rose on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 attacks.
SEPTEMBER 2006: Abramson says Keller “is very well suited to these times. He is cerebral and careful.”
NOVEMBER 2006: “I’m hopelessly hooked on the print newspaper,” says Abramson.
NOVEMBER 2008: Religion writer says he’s responsible for Abramson witnessing a very odd religious ceremony.
APRIL 2010: Abramson: ‘Decades from now, the quality newspapers that remain may not be literally on paper’
MAY 2010: Abramson temporarily steps aside so she can focus on the digital side.
SEPTEMBER 2010: Abramson says a female top editor at NYT would be a healthy thing for the country.
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