New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet to be honored by the Newhouse School at annual Mirror Awards ceremony
Dean Baquet, who has served as executive editor of The New York Times for eight years, will be honored by the Newhouse School with the Fred Dressler Leadership Award at the annual Mirror Awards ceremony June 8 in New York City.
“Dean Baquet has exemplified work ethic, skill and commitment to quality,” says Newhouse dean Mark J. Lodato. “His passion for journalism—from his early days as a reporter in New Orleans to his Pulitzer Prize-winning work in Chicago to his capable and successful leadership of The New York Times—has made him an inspiration and a role model for our students, many of whom wish to follow in his footsteps and shape the future of the industry.”
Baquet serves in the highest ranked position in The Times’s newsroom and oversees The New York Times news report in all its various forms. He is the first Black executive editor of The Times, which has won 18 Pulitzer Prizes during his tenure and saw a massive growth in readership. The Times now reaches 100 million readers each month and had 6.7 million subscriptions to its print and digital news products.
Baquet will step down from the position in June, and will be succeeded by managing editor Joseph F. Kahn. The announcement was made yesterday by New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger, who said Baquet “will remain at The Times to lead an exciting new venture.”
Kahn will present the Dressler Award to Baquet at the ceremony.
Before being named executive editor, Baquet was managing editor of The Times. He previously served as Washington bureau chief. Baquet rejoined The Times after several years at the Los Angeles Times, where he was editor for two years.
Previously, Baquet was national editor and deputy metro editor of The New York Times. He joined in 1990 as a metro reporter.
Before that, he reported for the Chicago Tribune and The Times-Picayune in New Orleans for nearly seven years. While at the Chicago Tribune, Baquet was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for investigative reporting on corruption in the Chicago City Council.
The Dressler Award is given to individuals or organizations that have made distinct, consistent and unique contributions to the public’s understanding of the media. Past recipients have included Jorge Ramos, anchor with Univision Noticias; Sheila Nevins, executive producer and former president of HBO Documentary Films and Family for Home Box Office; and legendary journalist Tom Brokaw of NBC, among others.
About the Mirror Awards
The Mirror Awards are the most important awards for recognizing excellence in media industry reporting. Established by the Newhouse School in 2006, the awards honor the reporters, editors and teams of writers who hold a mirror to their own industry for the public’s benefit.
In addition to the Dressler Award, the school will also present the Lorraine Branham IDEA Award and six juried journalism awards. Finalists were announced earlier this month.
For more information, visit newhouse.syr.edu/mirrorawards or email mirrorawards@syr.edu.