Dean Baquet Has Kidney Tumor Removed; New NYT Editor 'Back Soon'

Dean Baquet, the newly appointed executive editor of The New York Times, had a malignant tumor removed from his kidney over the weekend, the newspaper reported.

Baquet said in an email sent to New York Times staff on Monday that he will be taking the week to recover from the surgery. In the same email, Baquet said he will remain “in touch with the newsroom leadership” during his recovery, assuring staff he would be “back there as soon as possible.”

“I know this comes as we are all trying to move forward in the newsroom,” he said.

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Baquet, 57, ascended to position of executive editor of The New York Times when Jill Abramson was fired by Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the newspaper’s publisher, in May. Baquet is the first African-American to hold the title at The New York Times.

The first woman to have been the newspaper’s executive editor, Abramson, 60, is going to teach undergraduate narrative non-fiction courses at Harvard University where she graduated from in 1976.