Bill Keller was executive editor of The New York Times from 2003 to
2011 and was an Op-Ed columnist from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2011
to 2014.
From July 2003 until September 2011, he was the executive editor of
The Times, presiding over the newsroom during a time of journalistic
distinction, economic challenge, and transformation. During his eight
years in that role, The Times sustained and built its formidable
newsgathering staff, winning 18 Pulitzer Prizes, and expanded its
audience by mastering the journalistic potential of the Internet. The
newsroom also participated in the creation of a digital subscription
plan to help secure the company’s economic future.
Mr. Keller was succeeded by Jill Abramson, a former investigative
reporter and Washington bureau chief who had been one of his two top
deputies since 2003.
Before becoming executive editor, Mr. Keller had spent two years as a
senior writer for The New York Times Magazine and an Op-Ed columnist.
He served as managing editor from 1997 to September 2001 after having
been the newspaper’s foreign editor from June 1995 to 1997.
As chief of The Times bureau in Johannesburg from April 1992 until May
1995, he covered the end of white rule in South Africa.
From December 1986 to October 1991, Mr. Keller was a Times
correspondent in Moscow, reporting on the easing and ultimate collapse
of Communist rule and the breakup of the Soviet Union. In 1989, he won
a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage.
Mr. Keller joined The New York Times in 1984 as a domestic
correspondent based in the Washington bureau, reporting variously on
labor, agriculture and military affairs.
Before coming to The Times, Mr. Keller was a reporter for The Dallas
Times Herald, the Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report in Washington
and The Portland Oregonian.
Mr. Keller graduated from Pomona College with a B.A. degree in 1970
and is a member of the college’s board of trustees.
He is the author of “The Tree Shaker: The Story of Nelson
Mandela,” published in January, 2008, by Kingfisher.
