THE NEW York Timeshas appointed a woman editor for the first time in its 160-year history.
Jill Abramson (57) has been the second in command of the US newspaper of record since 2003. She was educated at Harvard, worked for nine years at the Wall Street Journaland joined the Timesin 1997. In 1999 she became the Times's Washington editor, and was promoted to bureau chief the following year.
With a newsroom staff of 1,200 reporters, editors, photographers and digital journalists, the Timesis the largest newspaper in the US and ranks third in sales, after the Wall Street Journaland USA Today.
The outgoing editor, Bill Keller (62) resisted pressure to make severe cuts in news coverage, though he was forced by the migration of advertisers and readers to online sites to eliminate 100 newsroom jobs in late 2009.
Unlike Ms Abramson, who last year volunteered for a temporary move to the online operation to better understand digital media, Mr Keller seemed uncomfortable with the internet. He has written columns criticising Arianna Huffington and her online Huffington Post, as well as Twitter and social media.
After a reporting stint in Iran two years ago, Mr Keller said the best thing about being there was that no one asked him about the crisis in print media. “Not once did somebody come up to me and say, ‘How are you going to monetise the web?’” the Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying.
Mr Keller postponed his departure until after the Timesestablished its "pay wall" system in March, for which more than 100,000 subscribers have signed up. He will remain with the Times as a full-time writer.
Ms Abramson was quoted in yesterday's Timessaying her priorities will be integrating digital and print operations, retaining top talent and making the paper more of an online community.
In a speech to the Times's staff on Thursday, Ms Abramson said that editing the paper was "the honour of my life . . . like ascending to Valhalla" for someone who had grown up reading it every day. She recalled that a previous executive editor, Howell Raines, tried to fire her as Washington bureau chief but that the firm's chief executive, Janet Robinson, told her, "You will leave over my dead body."
Ms Abramson is to take up her position in September. Mr Keller is paid about $650,000 ($450,000) a year, according to New York Guide.