NEW YORK — Among the bookcases and posters in Jill Abramson’s office at the New York Times is a blown-up black-and-white photo of the newsroom, circa 1895, in which a group of men huddle around a desk occupied by a woman named Mary Taft.
“She looks like the boss,” said Abramson. Not quite — Taft was the paper’s second female reporter. On Thursday, the 57-year-old Abramson was named the first woman to head the Times’ newsroom in its 160-year history.
By the numbers
Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations
Abramson’s appointment was part of a sweeping and symbolic series of changes at the newspaper, which is both a journalistic leader and one that reflects its industry’s deepening financial crisis.
She takes over a newspaper that has doubled down on its journalism in tough economic times, resisting the cuts to staff and budgets that other papers have chosen as advertisers and readers migrate to other, mostly digital sources of news.
Abramson, who had been managing editor, the No. 2 position, will replace Bill Keller, who is stepping down as executive editor after eight years in a move that caught many inside and outside the Times newsroom off guard. In turn, Abramson named Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet to replace her as managing editor.
The shuffle creates a vacancy in the Times’ Washington bureau, where the chief is arguably one of the most important and influential figures in American journalism. Keller, Abramson and Baquet said they have not had formal discussions about who might replace Baquet in the job.
A widely respected investigative reporter who also formerly ran the Times’ Washington bureau, Abramson is frequently described by friends and colleagues as “tough.” She proved just how tough in 2007, when she recovered from serious injuries and returned to work after being struck by a truck while walking in Manhattan.
Abramson said Thursday that her elevation to the top job “says if you set your mind to something and if you have the experience and the talent, you can get there. And you can have a family. I have two kids and a dog.”
In comments to her newsroom colleagues Thursday, Abramson said she “stood on the shoulders” of men who hired and promoted her, including Keller and former editor Joseph Lelyveld. But she also mentioned a different set of shoulders, such as those of Janet Robinson, the chief executive of the New York Times Co., and an earlier generation of women at the Times, “who had to fight battles just to get in the door.”
Abramson’s ascension comes at a darkening time for newspapers. Industry revenues have fallen for six consecutive years, with no signs of a turnaround in sight. The Newspaper Association of America reported this week that print advertising revenue fell 9.5 percent in the first quarter, pushing industry sales to their lowest level since 1983.
The Times’ parent, the New York Times Co., has not been spared from the industry’s fate; the company said in April that its net income plunged 57 percent from January through March, mostly as a result of sluggish newspaper sales. The company earned just $5.4 million in the quarter, down from $12.8 million one year earlier.
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