A new era began at the New York Times on Tuesday, as Jill Abramson officially took over from Bill Keller as the paper's executive editor -- the first woman to lead the institution in its history.
Unlike when it was first announced in June, the actual handover from Keller to Abramson came with little overt fanfare. The only tangible change was the paper's masthead, which now lists Abramson as executive editor and former Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet as managing editor.
Keller will now transition to a writing role for the Times, penning an op-ed column as well as longer pieces for the New York Times Magazine.
The transition from Keller to Abramson was the smoothest in over a decade. Keller took over the paper when it was reeling from the Jayson Blair scandal and the high-handed rule of Howell Raines, who himself had beaten out Keller in a bitter faceoff just a few years previously. In contrast, Abramson had no real competition for the top job, and the Times is on a much steadier path.
In an interview with The Huffington Post's Michael Calderone just after being named the new editor, Abramson said that the job was "an honor of my life," and that her role would be to "seize the future and help make the right calls on how to get there."
