Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joe Kahn will be the next executive editor of The New York Times.
Kahn, managing editor at the Times since September 2016, will succeed Dean Baquet, who is stepping down after eight years. Kahn will take over one of the most powerful positions in all of the news media in June.
In a statement, A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times and chairman of The New York Times Company, said, “Joe brings impeccable news judgment, a sophisticated understanding of the forces shaping the world and a long track record of helping journalists produce their most ambitious and courageous work. We couldn’t ask for a better leader for our newsroom amid a historic convergence of events. And as one of the architects of our digital transformation, Joe’s vision will be crucial as we seek to become even more valuable to readers around the world.”
After graduating from Harvard in 1987, Kahn worked at The Dallas Morning News. He then went back to Harvard to work in a master’s program for East Asian studies and learned Mandarin. After working as a freelancer from Beijing for the Morning News, he became the paper’s China correspondent and, in 1994, shared a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.
Kahn moved onto The Wall Street Journal and was hired by the Times in 1998. He was a part of his second Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for an investigation of China’s legal system.
After that, Kahn became deputy foreign editor and then international editor before becoming the managing editor in 2016.
In a statement, Kahn said, “I’m deeply humbled to lead a global newsroom of immensely talented journalists who provide original, on-the-ground, indispensable reporting about the most important news of our time. The New York Times will continue to play an essential role in producing and protecting independent journalism.”
Kahn takes over for Baquet, who had a superb run overseeing the Times newsroom. During Baquet’s time as executive editor, the Times won 18 Pulitzer Prizes, including two for Public Service. Perhaps more importantly, the Times saw significant audience growth. The Times now reaches 100 million readers each month and had 6.7 million subscriptions to its print and digital news products as of the end of 2021.
The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum and Jim Windolf wrote, “Mr. Baquet also navigated controversies inside and outside the paper. An award-winning podcast, ‘Caliphate,’ was found to have fallen well short of the paper’s journalistic standards. In 2021, the reporter Donald G. McNeil Jr. left under pressure after complaints about his use of a racist slur during a Times-sponsored trip for high school students. Newsroom employees called for a more aggressive commitment to diversifying the staff. The newspaper, traditionally accused of bias by some conservatives, faced criticism from some liberals about its coverage.”
Baquet, the first Black executive editor of the Times, said in a statement, “It has been my great honor to lead the best newsroom in the world for the past eight years. I could not be leaving The Times in better hands than with a leader like Joe, who is not only brilliant but humane. I would like to thank the Sulzberger family for their continued dedication to protecting our country’s most powerful engine of independent, investigative journalism.”
Baquet did not tell The Times what, if anything, he will do next.
Sulzberger said, “In the last eight years, Dean has fearlessly led The Times through an unbelievably challenging and consequential period, from guiding our transformation into a truly digital newsroom to confronting the escalating pressures on independent journalism to keeping pace with a historic flood of giant news stories. At the same time, Dean built the strongest investigative reporting operation on earth and oversaw a bounty of journalism that repeatedly changed the national conversation, from #MeToo, to ‘The Daily,’ to the 1619 Project, to our coverage of the Trump administration, COVID pandemic and conflict in Ukraine.”
Grynbaum and Windolf noted that Kahn is among Baquet’s closest confidants, adding, “But while Mr. Baquet is known for an outgoing and casual style, Mr. Kahn is more reserved. Part of his challenge will be engaging with a news operation of about 1,700 employees — the largest in The Times’s 171-year history — some of whom have never worked in the office because of the pandemic.”
Sulzberger said, “Under Dean and Joe, The Times has grown stronger in virtually every way. Our newsroom is larger than ever, with a far greater diversity of skills and backgrounds than ever before, and a culture that is more collaborative, supportive and inclusive. Our journalism has grown more ambitious, coming together in a multimedia report of unmatched depth and breadth, expertise and creativity. And the impact of our work has grown, as we serve readers and subscribers at a previously unimaginable scale.”
Tom Jones is Poynter’s senior media writer. For the latest media news and analysis, delivered free to your inbox each and every weekday morning, sign up for his Poynter Report newsletter.
