L.A. Times’ Dean Baquet Joins Growing Ranks of Black Newspaper Editors
Date: Sunday, July 24, 2005
By: Monica Lewis, BlackAmericaWeb.com
You might say it’s a “Sweet 16” celebration in the world of black journalism these days.
Last week, the Los Angeles Times announced that its managing editor, Dean Baquet, would become executive vice president and editor effective August 15. The move makes Baquet one of 16 black top editors out of approximately 1,500 daily newspapers in the United States.
As word spread about Baquet’s promotion, black journalists across the country expressed the belief that, for them, the tide may finally be turning when it comes to managerial opportunities.
“I think it’s monumental,” Don Hudson, managing editor of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “This is saying that we’re making tremendous progress in the business.”
Earlier this year, Hudson was equally optimistic when Michael Days became the first black editor of the Philadelphia Daily News. Now with Baquet taking over the nation’s second-largest metropolitan newspaper, Hudson said the 48-year-old New Orleans native is helping set the standards for black journalists, as well as making newspaper executives see the potential black journalists have.
“I think it’s been known all along that we’re capable of succeeding in managerial roles,” said Hudson, whose own newspaper has a black editor in Ronnie Agnew. “It’s just been a matter of waiting for the opportunities and waiting for it to happen. But there are folks out there that can run metro newspapers.”
In addition to Days and now Baquet, other black top editors at mid-size to large dailies include Debra Adams Simmons of the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal; Gregory Moore at the Denver Post and Kenneth F. Bunting from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Many black journalists are expected at the 30th Anniversary Convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, which will be held in Atlanta from August 3 - 7. Hudson said he hasn’t heard whether the NABJ, an organization with 3,300 members, will do anything to acknowledge Baquet’s promotion, but he is personally looking forward to seeing Baquet next month.
“I imagine [NABJ President] Herb Lowe will make comments about Dean’s promotion, but as for myself, I just want to walk up to him and shake his hand,” said Hudson, who recently did a census of blacks journalists in management for the NABJ.
Baquet, who started his career on the police beat for the now-defunct New Orleans States-Item, worked for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times. At the Tribune, he served as associate metropolitan editor for investigations and, in 1988, was a member of a three-reporter team awarded a Pulitzer Prize for an investigative piece exposing corruption within the Chicago City Council. In 1990, Baquet joined the New York Times. Five years later, he was promoted to national editor of the publication, a position he held until 2000 when he made the jump to Los Angeles.
Baquet will now succeed the retiring John S. Carroll, who developed a reputation as one of the nation’s leading journalists during a distinguished 42-year career. Like many others, Hudson considers Carroll one of the best in the business.
“I have the utmost respect for John Carroll, and I know that he helped groom Dean,” Hudson said.
Jeffrey M. Johnson, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, said the paper is indebted to Carroll for raising the standards in virtually every area of the news operation. Johnson added that he is confident that Baquet will continue to steer the publication in the right direction.
“Dean is an exceptionally talented, dynamic and well-respected editor who has been essential to the progress of the Times during the last five years,” Johnson said in a written statement. “His personal leadership qualities and breadth of experience, both at the Times and in prior assignments, make him the very best person to succeed John.”
Baquet will have some challenges ahead, including budget cuts throughout the newsroom that have been imposed by the Chicago-based Tribune Co., which owns the Times. Karen Brown Dunlap, president of the Poynter Institute, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based journalism organization, told the Times that Baquet would do a great job managing the newsroom, calling Baquet an “outstanding journalist,” “calm and collected,” and an editor who can focus on the news, setting distractions aside.
Hudson is hopeful that Baquet will also focus on providing news coverage of key issues plaguing much of Los Angeles’ black community, including limited access to healthcare, violence and economic troubles.
“It helps to have someone there who is African-American and knows the issues we face on a daily basis,” Hudson said, adding that Gerald Boyd, former managing editor of the New York Times, oversaw a groundbreaking series on race in America that likely would have not happened if Boyd, who is black, had not been a leading voice within the newsroom.
“Dean offers a different perspective and a different voice, and that’s a plus,” Hudson said. “I think Dean certainly is going to set the stage for wherever that newspaper is headed.”
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Monday, July 25th 2005 at 11:52AM
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