When Jill Abramson was hired as executive editor of the New York Times in 2011, the first woman in one of the most important, most visible jobs in journalism, it was big news. Now that she has been dismissed as executive editor of the Times and is being replaced by Dean Baquet, the managing editor, it promises to be even bigger news.
The inside workings of the Times have always been a topic of speculation, sometimes more intense than a Page One feature – although usually that was mostly confined to the East Coast media corridor. It was that way when I worked there (and left before Abramson arrived) and played the game of counting the truths and fictions in each exposé. I expect a flood of exhaustive narratives that will contain only bits of “what really happened.”
The news, however, will surely resonate even outside the media world this time because the appointment meant so much to so many women in the industry and because Abramson’s tenure has always been scrutinized.
