This time last week, our own Joe Hagan warned that something had to give at the New York Times as it sought to eliminate 30 positions from the newsroom and relieve bloating at the top of masthead. In an effort to avoid layoffs, there’s been some “begging and pleading,” as one source put it, about buyouts, but the changes in leadership are under way: Managing editor John Geddes announced today that he’s leaving the paper after almost twenty years.
As one of two top editors under Jill Abramson, Geddes said in his announcement that he’ll stick around for “a few months to help with the masthead transition.” Dean Baquet will be left as the paper’s only managing editor.
“I know everyone says you have to do this carefully and be armed with a plan, but I don’t have one — not yet,” Geddes wrote. “But after serving four executive editors, it is time for new horizons.”
Assistant managing editors Rick Berke and Glenn Kramon, meanwhile, were moved around, while Alice DuBois, editor for Special Sections and Development, is taking a buyout and boarding the Buzzfeed spaceship to the future.
