Posted on 06/23/2008 2:25:33 PM PDT by abb
Leonard Downie Jr. said today he is stepping down as The Washington Post's executive editor, ending a 17-year tenure in which the paper became a major online force and won a slew of prizes for high-profile investigations, including one that Downie published over President Bush's objections.
Downie, 66, said his last day will be Sept. 8. The paper's new publisher, Katharine Weymouth, said she plans to announce a successor soon.
"After 44 years, the notion of not working in the newsroom anymore brings a lot of emotions," Downie said in an interview. "I will really miss it . . . At the same time I'm ready to do this, because so much further change now needs to take place at the newspaper and Web site, and someone else should be tackling that."
He summed up his management philosophy in a sentence: "You hire people smarter and more talented than you and enable them to do their best work."
Associate Editor Robert G. Kaiser, Downie's first managing editor, called him "the straightest shooter I ever had to deal with. One of my anxieties about my friend is that his qualities won't be appreciated because they're so invisible. . . . It's never occurred to him to seek the spotlight or be flashy or sexy or any of the things that seem to be so valued now. He's a really large figure who's accomplished so much, but without any hint of charisma in the wider world."
Downie will become a Post Co. vice president at large, a title also held by his predecessor as editor, Ben Bradlee.
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(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
ping
http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0608/WaPos_Downie_retires_as_editor.html
WaPo’s Downie retires as editor
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2008/06/23/downie-talks-about-departure/
Downie Talks About Departure
So long. Don’t let the door hit you.
There's some rearranging to do out on the deck, Ms. Weymouth.
:)
There is a CONSERVATIVE Miss Weymouth,,,I wonder if its THIS one.
More good news as another America Hating/maggot infected mediot not a journalist leaves the stage.
A dying crawling lizard would be a good picture to describe this event.
I love that pic!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/business/media/24paper.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin
The Times and I.H.T. Study Web Merger
By DOREEN CARVAJAL
PARIS — The New York Times Company is developing plans to merge the Web site of the International Herald Tribune with that of The New York Times, in a bid to expand their global reach and deepen their appeal to advertisers.
Top executives of both newspapers said on Monday that they intended to create a “co-branded international home page” that would replace iht.com, the existing Web site of the International Herald Tribune. The Times Company acquired full control of The Herald Tribune in 2003, and has been accelerating the integration of the two papers in recent months.
“We want to examine the potential to merge iht.com with nytimes.com,” the publisher of The Herald Tribune, Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, said. “And the reason for that is that we believe that it will provide us with much more scale and will expose our journalism to a much larger audience. In terms of driving revenues from advertising, it will be a much more powerful proposition.”
snip
Downie Down. Wapo out!
OH THAT GOOD NEWS LOL!
The conservative Weymouth is “Lally” a relative of one of the owners of the Post.
Don’t know who this editor is. Kaiser has gone to the left, which is a shame after his good reporting on Vietnam.
Downie is a little sh*t. Tried to be a little Napoleon without the class.
Good riddance. More media garbage to go into the trash heap of journalism.
As “W” said, “Great job Downie.”
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