Los Angeles Times editor John S. Carroll is retiring and will be succeeded by Dean Baquet, the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning managing editor, the newspaper announced Wednesday.
Baquet, 48, will become executive vice president and editor on Aug. 15, the newspaper said.
Carroll, 63, was named editor of the newspaper in April 2000 after Tribune Co. purchased the newspaper’s parent Times Mirror Co. During his tenure at the Times, the newspaper won 13 Pulitzer Prizes, but also weathered circulation and advertising declines.
Times publisher Jeff Johnson praised Carroll’s “extraordinary legacy of journalistic excellence.”
The newspaper said Johnson, who became publisher June 1, will gain oversight of the editorial and opinion pages as part of the leadership transition, underscoring that they are independent of the newsroom.
The Times has cut positions and delayed some editorial initiatives because of revenue shortfalls.
In May, the newspaper reported that average daily circulation for the six-month period ending March 31 declined 6.5 percent, compared with the prior year, while Sunday circulation fell 7.9 percent.
Circulation losses have become common at newspapers as the Internet and other media attract young audiences. Tribune responded in part by creating a tabloid for young readers called RedEye in Chicago. Last week, the Times named RedEye’s general manager, John T. O’Loughlin, 37, to become senior vice president of marketing, planning and development. O’Loughlin is scheduled to start at the Times Aug. 1.
Carroll arrived at the Times along with former publisher John Puerner amid a management shakeup at the newspaper shortly after it switched to Tribune ownership. Puerner left the paper in May, citing a “self-imposed career break.”
Changing coastsBefore joining the Times, Carroll served as editor of The (Baltimore) Sun from 1991 to 2000. In 1998, he was named vice president of Times Mirror.
Carroll started his career in journalism in 1963 as a reporter for the Providence (R.I.) Journal-Bulletin. He later served as a correspondent in Vietnam, the Middle East and the White House for The Sun.
In 1972, he joined the editing staff of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Seven years later, he was named editor of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald and later the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Baquet left a national editor post at The New York Times in 2000 to join the Los Angeles Times. He started at The New York Times in 1990 and served as a metropolitan reporter, special projects editor and deputy metropolitan editor.
In 1988, Baquet led a three-member team at the Chicago Tribune that won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting on corruption in the Chicago City Council. He worked for the Tribune from 1984 to 1990. Previously, he worked for the States-Item and The Times-Picayune in New Orleans.