New York Times' Dean Baquet to receive 2025 Paul White Award
Dean Baquet, the former executive editor of The New York Times and an innovative force in American journalism, will be honored as the 2025 recipient of the Radio Television Digital News Association’s Paul White Award.
The Paul White Award, named for the first news director of CBS, is RTDNA’s highest honor, presented annually to recognize a lifetime of achievement and service to the journalism profession.
“Dean Baquet will go down in journalism history as a transformative leader helping to bring the ‘Gray Lady’ into the 21st century by ensuring it now reaches news consumers wherever they are,” said RTDNA President and CEO Dan Shelley. “Even more important, he upheld the highest standards of ethical, responsible reporting, never shying away from holding those in power accountable to the public they served.”
Since 1956, honorees have included Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Barbara Walters and Ted Koppel. Baquet will be recognized at RTDNA25, June 11-13 in New Orleans.
Baquet currently leads The Times’ new local investigative fellowship, which launched in October 2022. The program has already earned national recognition, winning a George Polk Award and being named a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. He served as executive editor from 2014 to 2022, a period marked by significant growth and journalistic excellence. Under his leadership, the newsroom won 13 Edward R. Murrow Awards, 18 Pulitzer Prizes — including two for public service — and expanded its reach to more than 100 million monthly readers, with 6.7 million subscriptions by the end of 2021.
Throughout his distinguished career, Baquet has held some of the most prestigious roles in journalism. In addition to serving as executive editor and managing editor at The Times, he was previously the paper’s Washington bureau chief. He also served as editor of the Los Angeles Times and held key editing roles in The Times’ Metro and National desks.
Before joining The New York Times, Baquet was an investigative reporter at the Chicago Tribune, where he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for exposing corruption in the Chicago City Council. He began his journalism career at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, his hometown.
Baquet’s legacy is one of fearless reporting, principled leadership and a deep commitment to public service journalism that informs and empowers communities across the country.
He studied English at Columbia University and is widely regarded as a mentor and role model for generations of journalists.