Baquet Named Times Editor as Carroll Retires

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latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-072005editors_lat,0,623165.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Baquet Named Times Editor as Carroll Retires
By John Spano
Times Staff Writer

3:18 PM PDT, July 20, 2005

Editor John S. Carroll, who led the Los Angeles Times to 13 Pulitzer Prizes in five years as the newspaper struggled with declining circulation, announced his retirement today and will be succeeded by Managing Editor Dean P. Baquet.

Publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson lauded Carroll's tenure this morning in a newsroom meeting, where a festive mood prevailed. Carroll was greeted with 45 seconds of sustained applause.

"Since joining The Times in 2000, John has raised the standards in virtually every area of the news operation, and has led the paper through a period of great achievement," said Johnson in a statement. "We are indebted to him for his extraordinary legacy of journalistic excellence and wish him every happiness in the future.

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Carroll is appreciated in the newsroom as a careful pencil editor with a wide vision, and for his encouragement of aggressive, in-depth reporting, such as a series on how the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center provided care so poor that it imperiled the health of some patients. The series won the coveted Gold Medal for Public Service this year from the Pulitzer board.

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