NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 30, 2007--The New York Times announced today Dean Baquet has been named Washington bureau chief effective March 5. Mr. Baquet rejoins the newspaper after seven years at the Los Angeles Times, including the last two years as editor. Philip Taubman, who turns over the reins of the Washington bureau to Mr. Baquet, has been promoted to associate editor. In addition Mr. Taubman will take on a special reporting assignment in the area of national security.

"The Washington bureau is one of the crown jewels of The New York Times," said Bill Keller, executive editor. "At the moment the bureau is as rich in talent and accomplishment as any time in its storied history. Over the past year, Phil presided over a period of ambitious rebuilding and still more ambitious journalism. He leaves behind a great editing team. And he leaves behind a bureau that has taken to heart a mandate for incisive, original and hard-hitting coverage.

"I'm delighted that the chief of that high-octane bureau will be Dean Baquet," added Mr. Keller. "Back in 2005 when Dean moved into the top job in Los Angeles I described him as 'a world-class investigator, an inspiring editor and a barrel of fun.' Since then he has demonstrated that, in addition to being all of those things, he is a charismatic leader, an unflinching advocate of the value and values of journalism and a cool character under fire. It's nice to have him back where he belongs and in a bureau that can rise to all of his expectations."

Mr. Baquet, 50, first joined The New York Times in 1990 as a metropolitan reporter. In 1995, he was promoted to national editor.

Mr. Baquet was named managing editor of the Los Angeles Times in 2000. He became editor of that newspaper in 2005.

Before joining The New York Times the first time, he reported for The Chicago Tribune from 1984 to 1990, and before that for The Times Picayune, New Orleans, La., for nearly seven years.

He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 1988 when he led a team of three in documenting corruption in the Chicago City Council. Mr. Baquet has also received the Peter Lisagor Award for Investigative Reporting, 1988; The Chicago Tribune's William H. Jones Award for Investigative Reporting, 1987, 1988 and 1989, and numerous local and regional awards.

Mr. Taubman, 58, was named Washington bureau chief of The New York Times in 2003. He was deputy editor of the editorial page from 2002 and assistant editorial page editor from 1994 to 2002. He was deputy national editor from 1993 to 1994 and deputy Washington editor from 1989 to 1992. Mr. Taubman was based in Moscow from 1985 until the end of 1988, covering the first turbulent years of Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure as Soviet leader. He served as Moscow bureau chief from 1986 to 1988.

He joined The Times in 1979 as a reporter in the Washington bureau, initially covering the Justice Department and working on investigative projects and later specializing in national security and intelligence issues.

In 1970, Mr. Taubman became a correspondent for Time magazine in its Boston bureau. From 1973 to 1976, he was a staff writer and the sports editor in Time's New York office and from 1976 to 1977, he worked in the magazine's Washington bureau, covering labor and economic policy stories. His reporting in this assignment led to an article in Time, which exposed the tangled finances of Bert Lance, President Carter's budget director. In 1977, he left Time to become a writer at Esquire magazine.

Mr. Taubman has received two George Polk awards - the first in 1981 (shared with Jeff Gerth and Seymour M. Hersh) for national reporting about two former C.I.A. employees who provided aid to Libya, and the second in 1983 for foreign affairs reporting for coverage of American policy in Central America.

He is the author of "Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America's Space Espionage," (Simon & Schuster, 2003).

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CONTACT: The New York Times
Catherine J. Mathis, 212-556-1981
mathis@nytimes.com
Diane McNulty, 212-556-5244
mcnuldc@nytimes.com

SOURCE: The New York Times Company