Bill Keller will officially step down from his post as executive editor of The New York Times on Labor Day, the same day Jill Abramson will move into journalism’s most coveted and most complicated role. Already, profilers and commentators are dissecting Keller’s time—read our Clint Hendler’s thoughts here—and musing over what the Abramson era will bring. Only one thing can be sure right now: it will bring challenges.
A fledgling paywall, a struggle for standards across emerging platforms, two ongoing wars (a third rumbling along quietly), a presidential election or two, a slowing “recovery,” stubbornly bad unemployment levels, the erosion of the opinion/news divide, and the ever shrinking resources from which newspapers have to draw to deal with all of them: Thus read the Abramson tarot cards.
Today we’re asking what you’d like to see from the Times’s new executive editor. What does she need to do to handle these challenges? What does she need to change? And what should she leave exactly as it is? Let us know below.
The Editors are the staffers of the Columbia Journalism Review.