Dean Baquet
Dean P. Baquet[1] (/bæˈkeɪ/;[2] born September 21, 1956[3]) is an American journalist. He served as the editor-in-chief of The New York Times from May 2014 to June 2022.[4] Between 2011 and 2014 Baquet was managing editor under the previous executive editor Jill Abramson.[5] He is the first Black person to have been executive editor.[1]
Dean Baquet
September 21, 1956
Columbia University (did not graduate)
Journalist; Editor
1
- Edward Baquet (father)
A native of New Orleans, Baquet began his career in journalism there in the 1970s before moving to the Chicago Tribune in the 1980s. He joined The New York Times metro desk in 1990 and in 1995 became that paper's national editor,[6] after having served as deputy metro editor. In 2000, he left to become managing editor, and later executive editor of the Los Angeles Times. He returned to The New York Times as Washington bureau chief in 2007, after he refused to implement management-desired news room budget cuts at the Los Angeles paper.
In 1988, Baquet shared a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Journalism, leading a team of reporters that included William Gaines and Ann Marie Lipinski at the Chicago Tribune, for "their detailed reporting on the self-interest and waste" that plagued the Chicago City Council.[7]
Early life and education[edit]
Baquet was raised Catholic in Tremé, a working-class African-American neighborhood in New Orleans, Louisiana.[8] He is the fourth of five sons of New Orleans restaurateur Edward Baquet.[9]
Baquet graduated from St. Augustine High School in 1974.[10] Baquet received a scholarship to study English at Columbia University, but dropped out shortly before graduation[11][12][13] to pursue a career in journalism.[14][15]
Baquet worked in New Orleans for almost a decade, before leaving for the Chicago Tribune.[16]
Awards and honors[edit]
In 1988, Baquet earned the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for coverage of corruption in the Chicago City Council,[52] as well as the Peter Lisagor Award for investigative reporting.[53]
He received the Chicago Tribune's William H. Jones Award for Investigative Reporting in 1987, 1988, and 1989.[54] He received an honorary degree from Loyola University New Orleans in 2013,[55] was a guest speaker at Columbia College Class Day in 2016,[56] and received the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press' Freedom of the Press Award in 2018.[57]
In 2019, Baquet received the Larry Foster Award for Integrity in Public Communication at the Arthur W. Page Center Awards,[58] the Norman C. Francis Leadership Institute National Leadership Award for Excellence,[59] and was named one of the "35 most powerful people in New York media" by The Hollywood Reporter.[60] He received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Xavier University of Louisiana in 2020.[61]
In 2022, Baquet was honored by Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with the Fred Dressler Leadership Award at the Mirror Awards ceremony in New York City.[62][63]
