The palace intrigue whitens …
The New York Times is reinstating the position of managing editor, and giving it to a white man, the so-called “Grey Lady” (not “Grey Man” smh) announced on Friday.
Joseph Kahn was promoted from his current position as assistant editor for international, two years after Times executive editor Dean Baquet retired the powerful managing editor role. Baquet previously held the managing editor position, which has typically been used as grooming post for future executive editors.
It is unclear why, at a newspaper as myopically focused on diversity as the Times is, that the managing editor position was awarded to Kahn, as opposed to one of the three deputy executive editors on the Times staff, two of which are women.
The Times also announced that one of those female deputy editors, Susan Chira, was exiting her role (being demoted?) to become a writer on gender issues for the Times, presumably as part of the “cross-platform, global coverage vertical on the topic of gender and identity” the paper is launching.
MORE: New York Times Seeking ‘Gender Editor’
Last month, the Times announced it was looking for “a journalist with a compelling vision of how to expand this coverage [on gender issues], from boardroom to bedroom, from the loftiest corridors of power to the back alleys of the world’s most impoverished villages.”
Chira herself is not filling this position (perhaps because it’s designated as a digital position and therefore is a less expensive, non-union job) but the Times announcement today say that Chira will be collaborating with the yet-to-be hired “gender editor”.
It’s important to note that just weeks go, the Times published a piece lamenting the human race’s discovery of fire because it helped pave the way for smoking and “the rise of the patriarchy.”
MORE: New York Times Laments Discovery of Fire (Not A Parody)
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