Groundbreaking Editor Jill Abramson Is Out at the New York Times

Jill Abramson is leaving the New York Times, where she was the paper’s first female executive editor.

The senior editors were called into a 2 p.m. leadership meeting on Wednesday, according to Politico, and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. announced Abramson’s departure. She will be replaced by managing editor Dean Baquet, making him the paper’s first African American executive editor. He was formerly the Washington bureau chief.

“I choose to appoint a new leader for our newsroom because I believe that new leadership will improve some aspects of the management of the newsroom,” Sulzberger said. “This is not about any disagreement between the newsroom and the business side.”

There was no formal reason given for Abramson’s seemingly abrupt departure.

Abramson was appointed in September 2011 and has had a controversial run. As it goes with the case of women in charge, there were many articles about her leadership skills and her emotions. Let’s face it, only the NYT staffers who worked with Abramson each day really know what kind of boss she is, but for the rest of us, she cracked the glass ceiling at the Grey Lady and she deserves a round of applause. From the New York Times:

“I’ve loved my run at The Times,” she said in a statement. “I got to work with the best journalists in the world doing so much stand-up journalism,” she said, noting her appointment of many senior female editors as one of her achievements.