New York Times editor quits

Howell Raines has quit as editor of the New York Times in the wake of the Jayson Blair plagiarism scandal. The paper's managing editor Gerald Boyd has also resigned.

Raines and Boyd were blamed for overlooking Blair's errors and warnings about the quality of his work by other editors.

They were also accused of promoting the young, black reporter despite his known shortcomings.

Blair, 27, was forced to resign on May 1 after it emerged he had plagiarised and fabricated numerous stories in his four-year Times career.

Raines' predecessor, Joe Lelyveld, will step into his shoes as interim executive editor until a successor is appointed.

"This is a day that breaks my heart," said the paper's publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, at an unscheduled staff meeting this morning.

He did not mention Blair's name but Raines and Boyd have come under heavy fire in recent weeks.

"Howell and Gerald have tendered their resignations and I have accepted them with sadness based on what we believe is best for the Times," said Mr Sulzberger.

The resignations are a major blow to the paper - which is among the most highly regarded in America - but management will hope this development will put some distance between the plagiarism scandal and the paper's reputation.

The Blair exposé, which blew up in early May, was compounded by the discovery last week that another reporter, this time the Pulitzer prize-winning Rick Bragg, had drawn heavily on the work of a freelance for a story with his own byline.

Blair was forced to resign when it emerged he had lifted material from an interview with the family of a US soldier who died in the Gulf.

The story first appeared in the San Antonio News and was written by one of Blair's former college friends.

It soon transpired he had used other journalists' material and pretended to be in places he was not on many occasions.

He had even filed reports on the Washington sniper case with false datelines, relying on the paper's own picture archive to add colourful details to his stories.

In an attempt to be as above board as possible, the Times reported Blair's misdemeanours across four broadsheet pages but the scandal refused to go away.

The story was reported across the world's media, with journalists around the globe astonished that such a thing could happen at a bastion of broadsheet journalism.

Blair retaliated by branding the Times a "racist snake pit". On May 28 Bragg quit the paper after he was accused of drawing too heavily on the work of a freelance in one of his articles about oyster farming in Florida.

The Times announced it was setting up a committee to review its newsroom practices, including its recruitment policy and the use of bylines, unidentified material and freelances.

However, when it emerged several other reporters were also under investigation, speculation began about how long Raines could survive.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Raines told staff at a meeting on May 14: "You view me as inaccessible and arrogant. You believe the newsroom is too hierarchical, that my ideas get acted on and others get ignored.

"I heard that you were convinced there's a star system that singles out my favorites for elevation."

In a statement today, Mr Sulzberger said: "While the past few weeks have been difficult, we remain steadfast in our commitment to our employees, our readers and our advertisers to produce the best newspaper we can by adhering to the highest standards of integrity and journalism."

"For nearly 152 years the Times has devoted itself to this mission. With the efforts of our outstanding staff, we believe we can raise our level of excellence even higher."

Raines, 60, who joined the New York Times in 1978 as Atlanta correspondent, was appointed executive editor just days before the September 11 terror attacks.

Although he was criticised by some staff for his autocratic style, the paper picked up a record seven Pulitzer prizes the following April.

Raines is one of the most respected journalists of his generation, having held some of the most prestigious jobs in the trade.

He was the paper's Washington and London bureau chief, chief national political correspondent, White House correspondent from 1981 until 1984 and Atlanta bureau chief from 1979 until 1981.

Before joining the Times, Raines was political editor at Florida paper the St Petersburg Times, political editor of the Atlanta Constitution and a reporter on the Birmingham News and the Birmingham Post-Herald.

Lelyveld, 66, retired in 2001 after a seven-year stint as executive editor, during which the paper won 12 Pulitzer prizes.

His long career at the Times has included reporting from the Congo, India and Pakistan, Hong Kong, London, Washington and two stints in South Africa, as well as working as a staff writer and columnist for the New York Times Magazine.

He returned to New York as a foreign editor in 1987 and became managing editor three years later, before being named executive editor in 1994.

Since leaving the Times he has enjoyed an active career as a freelance writer, contributing to the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine.

He graduated from the Columbia University graduate school of journalism in 1960 and then took a Fulbright scholarship in Burma.

Boyd, 52, also a Pulitzer prize winner, has been managing editor of the Times since 2001 after serving the paper as deputy managing editor news since 1997 and assistant managing editor from 1993 until 1997.