Baquet, Dean

Dean Baquet, (born September 21, 1956, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.), American journalist who was the first African American to serve (2014–22) as executive editor of The New York Times.

Baquet was raised in the historic Treme neighbourhood of New Orleans. A member of one of the city’s famed restaurant families, he routinely mopped the floor of his family’s Creole diner in the mornings before attending classes at St. Augustine High School. Baquet majored in English literature (1974–78) at Columbia University, New York City, but he never graduated. Instead, during a summer break from his college studies, he took an internship with his hometown’s afternoon newspaper, the States-Item; the job eventually became a full-time position. After Baquet worked in New Orleans for nearly a decade, he moved (1984) to the Chicago Tribune as its deputy metropolitan editor and chief investigative reporter. Four years later he won a Pulitzer Prize for leading a team of three other reporters whose exposé unearthed corruption in the Chicago city council.

In 1990 Baquet was hired by Joseph Lelyveld, the managing editor of The New York Times, who sought to expose questionable dealings between New York politicians and private businesses through hard-hitting investigative articles. In the five years that followed, Baquet researched and reported on various instances of corruption, most notably price-fixing in the dairy industry and money laundering at the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. He also took on progressively more powerful positions at the paper, including special projects editor for the business desk in 1994 and national editor in 1995.

In 2000 Baquet accepted an offer from John Carroll, the editor of the Los Angeles Times, to become managing editor. In the five years that Baquet served as Carroll’s number two, the newspaper won 13 Pulitzer Prizes. When Carroll quit in 2005, Baquet assumed the newsroom’s top job, becoming the first African American to helm a major newspaper. He was fired 18 months later, however, after he openly attacked the company’s management concerning budget and staffing cuts.

Baquet returned to The New York Times as an assistant managing editor and Washington bureau chief in 2007 and was promoted to managing editor in 2011. On May 14, 2014, he was named executive editor, replacing Jill Abramson, the paper’s first female executive editor, who left abruptly after less than three years in the top post. In June 2014, shortly after taking up the position, Baquet had a malignant tumour removed from his kidney. In about a week, however, he returned to work. During his tenure The New York Times won 18 Pulitzer Prizes, and the newspaper greatly increased its subscriptions. This was achieved, in part, through the acquisition of various online companies, including The Wirecutter, a review site, and The Athletic, a sports-news venture. In June 2022 Baquet stepped down as executive editor, and he subsequently headed the newspaper’s fellowship program that focused on local investigative reporting.