Marty Baron, the executive editor of the Washington Post, announced his intention to retire.
Baron, who led the newsroom for eight years as it earned 10 Pulitzer Prizes and nearly doubled in size, announced in a note sent to the newsroom on Tuesday that his final day will be at the end of February.
“This news staff has delivered the finest journalism, shedding light where it was much needed and holding to account the powerful, especially those entrusted to govern this country. I am proud to have joined you in ambitious, high-impact work that is essential to a democracy. You stood up time and again against vilification and vile threats. You stood firm against cynical, never-ending assaults on objective fact,” he wrote in a letter sent to Washington Post Publisher and CEO Fred Ryan, which was sent to the outlet’s staff and obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“The past 12 months have highlighted the depth of your dedication to our readers. Professional and personal burdens have added up under the strain of pandemic, economic crisis, racial injustice, a tense presidential election and a lawless mob’s violent insurrection on January 6 this year,” he added. “Yet your determination to carry out our responsibilities only strengthened. This most difficult year was also the most inspiring.”
Baron has worked in journalism for more than four decades with stops at the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Miami Herald.
Ryan, in his own send-off to Baron, said that they “have long known this day would come” and that even with such knowledge, “it does not lessen the emotion we feel.”
“Under Marty’s eight years of newsroom leadership, The Washington Post has experienced a dramatic resurgence and has soared to new journalistic heights,” Ryan said of Baron. “As Executive Editor, he has significantly expanded our coverage areas, inspired great reporting, managed an awesome digital transformation and grown the number of readers and subscribers to unprecedented levels.”
Ryan also noted that Baron’s impending replacement hasn’t been chosen and that the outlet will be looking internally and externally for him or her. He also said that picking the next executive editor will be “one of the most consequential responsibilities I will have as your publisher.”
