Martin Baron joins Washington Post as Executive Editor

-- Baron has left The Boston Globe, where he was the top editor, and will start work at the Washington Post on January 2, 2013.

The Post announced the appointment in a press release dated November 13, 2012. The full text of the release is below:

Press release: Martin Baron named executive editor of The Washington Post

The Washington Post today announced that Marty Baron has been named executive editor of The Washington Post effective January 2, 2013.

“We are thrilled to have Marty Baron lead The Washington Post’s newsroom,” said Katharine Weymouth, publisher of The Post. “He has a demonstrated record of producing the highest quality journalism, which matches the legacy and expectations of The Post.”

Baron comes to The Post from The Boston Globe, where he has served as editor since July 30, 2001. He previously held top editing positions at The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Miami Herald.

“The Washington Post has played a defining and inspirational role in American journalism, and today it continues to lead as our profession undergoes a dramatic, urgent, and exciting transformation,” said Baron. “I am honored to join the supremely talented and dedicated journalists at The Washington Post.”

Under Baron’s leadership, the Globe won six Pulitzer prizes, including those for public service, explanatory journalism, national reporting, and criticism. The Globe received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003 for a Globe Spotlight Team investigation into the cover-up of clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

In directing the Globe newsroom, Baron has overseen the editorial operations of Boston.com, which draws more than 6 million monthly unique visitors and ranks among the nation’s largest newspaper websites; and BostonGlobe.com, a subscription-based site that was launched in late 2011. The Globe this year won six national Edward R. Murrow Awards in the competition sponsored by the Radio Television Digital News Association, and Boston.com won three EPPY awards in the competition sponsored by Editor & Publisher magazine.

Prior to joining the Globe, Baron was executive editor of The Miami Herald. During his tenure, the newspaper won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage in 2001 for its coverage of the raid to recover Elián González, the Cuban boy at the center of a fierce immigration and custody dispute.

Baron was named “Editor of the Year” by Editor & Publisher Magazine in April of 2001, and he was selected by the National Press Foundation as “Editor of the Year” in 2004. In 2012, he was awarded the Stephen Hamblett First Amendment Award by the New England First Amendment Coalition and was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Baron succeeds Marcus Brauchli, who will step down, effective December 31 to assume a new role as Vice President of The Washington Post Company, working closely with Don Graham to review and evaluate new media opportunities.

“Marcus has contributed immeasurably in the more than four years he has been at the helm of this newsroom,” Weymouth said. “Under his leadership, we have become one newsroom publishing on multiple platforms, traffic has grown substantially and we are consistently recognized as among the most innovative mainstream news sites.”

“I am enormously proud of what we have accomplished here, and honored to have worked among so many brilliant journalists,” Brauchli said. “There is no finer newsroom.”

Under Brauchli, The Post’s newsroom won four Pulitzer Prizes, and was a finalist for eight others. The Post also won an array of other awards including a George Polk, a Peabody, several Overseas Press Club awards and citations, and recognition from state press associations in Maryland and Virginia and international news-design organizations.

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