Former Los Angeles Times Editor Dean Baquet was named today Washington bureau chief for the New York Times, positioning him as a leader at one of America's top newspapers but dashing the hopes of some of his onetime employees that he might return to the Los Angeles paper if it changed owners.
New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller joined Baquet in the Washington newsroom this morning to announce the change. Keller said current bureau chief Philip Taubman would assume the title of associate editor in March and become a special reporter covering national security.
Baquet left the Los Angeles Times in a dispute with the paper's corporate bosses, who were pushing staff reductions that Baquet said would hurt the quality of the paper. The editor's stand made him a hero among many journalists but angered managers at the Tribune Co. He left the paper in November, about a month after Times Publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson was ousted over a similar dispute.
Baquet, 50, served as editor of the Los Angeles Times for about 16 months after about five years as the paper's managing editor. He led a shift in resources to investigative reporting and the paper won 13 Pulitzer Prizes during his tenure.
"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," Keller said in a statement. "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 journalism and a cool character under fire."
New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and others at the Times have kept in close contact with Baquet since he left the newspaper in 2000. Baquet, who won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting at the Chicago Tribune, first joined the New York Times in 1990 as a metropolitan reporter. In 1995 he was promoted to national editor.
As tensions between the Los Angeles Times and its corporate parent worsened, the New York paper intensified its courtship of Baquet.
"It's nice to have him back where he belongs and in a bureau that can rise to all of his expectations," Keller said today.
A move to the New York Times would make Baquet a strong contender to one day reach the editor's suite, said several staffers at the newspaper, who asked not to be named, because they did not want to offend other contenders for the top job.
Baquet made headlines in September when he joined Johnson in opposing substantial cuts from the newspaper's newsroom staff of about 940. Executives overseeing the paper from Chicago had, at times, suggested cutting as many as 100 positions from the editorial ranks.
The tense relationship with Chicago executives had been exacerbated by disagreements over how many stories from other Tribune papers The Times should run and by what Baquet saw as a paltry investment in promoting the paper.
Some Tribune managers viewed Baquet as a grandstander, who refused to compromise even when they thought they could show how greater cooperation between the company's papers would improve editorial quality.
Baquet had a final showdown with Times Publisher David Hiller after he went to his hometown of New Orleans and urged a convention of newspaper editors to fight against owners who wanted to cut their news operations. Baquet said he was speaking from the heart about a dispute that had already been widely aired in public. But Hiller felt the speech undercut efforts to find common ground with his editor.
Word that Baquet would leave leaked out on Nov. 7 on election day. But some inside and outside the paper hoped that the editor might return, a scenario they thought could be advanced if a new owner took over the paper. Tribune Co. has been on the auction block since September and among those who have bid on the company are Los Angeles billionaires Eli Broad and Ron Burkle.
On the day his departure became public, both of the magnates called Baquet. They urged him to stay in Los Angeles, in position to retake his job at the paper if their bid was successful. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also called to bolster their position. Villaraigosa told the editor he knew Broad and Burkle were serious about trying to acquire The Times.
But as the auction has dragged on -- it's now lasted three months, with no immediate end in sight -- the energetic Baquet became increasingly restless about returning to the news business.
"It just became impossible to wait around any longer," said one of his former colleagues at the Los Angeles Times. "He wanted to get back in the game."
