Grey hairs

All change at the New York Times, where Executive Editor Jill Abramson has been replaced by Managing Editor Dean Baquet.

In April last year Jill was the subject of a controversial profile/hatchet job on the Politico website, in which some anonymous Times staff described her as impossible. The piece led on a story of Dean apparently being called in by Jill, who complained that recent news coverage hadn't been buzzy enough. Dean left the office abruptly, slammed his hand against a wall and took the day off. Later he told Politico "“I feel bad about that. The newsroom doesn’t need to see one of its leaders have a tantrum.”

In a subsequent exchange with Politico he said “I think there’s a really easy caricature that some people have bought into, of the bitchy woman character and the guy who is sort of calmer. That, I think, is a little bit of an unfair caricature.”

Is there a triangle here ? New NYT CEO Mark Thompson's relationship with Ms Abramson has been described as tense. Traditionally editorial decisions have been distanced from business decisions, but Thommo has been driving projects that put the two hand in hand, in search of new revenues. A long New York magazine article in August hinted that there was only really room for one "digital visionary" at The Grey Lady - and now it looks like there is only one.  

It is possible to read publisher Arthur Sulzberger's statement on today's moves as an attempt at misdirection. "I choose to appoint a new leader for our newsroom because I believe that new leadership will improve some aspects of the management of the newsroom. This is not about any disagreement between the newsroom and the business side."