New York Times staffers were stunned by Wednesday's announcement that Jill Abramson is out as the newspaper's executive editor.
Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. delivered the news in a meeting Wednesday afternoon, telling staffers that Abramson will be replaced by Dean Baquet effective immediately. The newspaper's own report said that "reasons for the switch were not immediately clear," and employees expressed their surprise at the abrupt change on Twitter:
The rest of the media world was just as shocked, with BuzzFeed's Ken Bensinger reporting that the New York Times' stock dropped 5 percent in the half hour after the announcement.
Words being used in WaPo newsroom right now: "Wow." "Whoa." "What???" http://t.co/SRvZbpIefk …
— J. Freedom du Lac (@jfdulac) May 14, 2014
Whoa. http://t.co/ErhCjl4TBT
— Ruth Graham (@publicroad) May 14, 2014
