Howell Raines

Howell Hiram Raines (born February 5, 1943 in Birmingham, Alabama) was Executive Editor of "The New York Times" from 2001 until 2003. He is the father of Jeff Raines, one of the founding members of the rock band, Galactic. He is currently a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio, writing the magazine's media column. [ [http://www.portfolio.com/contributors/Howell-Raines Biography of Howell] on Portfolio]

Early career

Raines earned a bachelor's degree from Birmingham-Southern College in 1964 and later a master's in English from The University of Alabama. The University of Alabama also awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1993. In 1964, Raines began his newspaper career as a reporter for the "Tuscaloosa News" in Alabama. He also reported for WBRC-TV in Birmingham. After a year as a reporter at the "Birmingham News", Raines became political editor of the "Atlanta Constitution" in 1971. His position at the newspaper lasted until 1976, when he became political editor at the "St. Petersburg Times".

"The New York Times"

Raines' affiliation with "The New York Times" began in 1978, when he joined as a national correspondent based in Atlanta. By 1979, Raines was the bureau chief in Atlanta, a position he remained in until 1981, when he became a national political correspondent. By the next year, Raines had been promoted to a White House correspondent for "The Times". His ascent within management continued in 1985, when he became deputy Washington editor. In 1987, Raines transferred to London and worked as the newspaper's London bureau chief. The next year, he returned to Washington D.C. to become the Washington bureau chief. In 1992, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. His longest lasting assignment within "The Times" began in 1993, when he left Washington for New York to become the paper's editorial page editor. He was appointed to Executive Editor in September 2001.
Paul Krugman, a Times columnist, stated in his book, The Great Unraveling, that it was Raines who made the decision to hire him.

Raines was lauded by many for instituting a program to increase diversity and to revive advocacy journalism. Although there was a period in the early unfolding of the Enron story regarding that energy company's corrupt practices when the "Times" had to play 'catch up' to the "Wall Street Journal", the Times did later develop some hard-hitting articles on that subject, a highly praised accomplishment due in part to Raines' insistence on aggressive investigations. Widely cited as a "hard-charging" Executive Editor, Raines was known for his policy of "flooding the zone"- using all of the "Times"' available resources to cover important stories.

Following the Jayson Blair scandal, Raines was forced to resign his position at the "Times".cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/06/05/nytimes.resigns/|title=Top New York Times editors quit|accessdate=2008-05-13|publisher=CNN]

Current activities

Raines took a look at his tenure as Executive Editor in "My Times", published in the "Atlantic Monthly", and again in his memoir " [http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/author/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002344144 The One that Got Away] " which came out in 2006. In it, Raines justaposes fishing stories with his journalism career with particular attention to what led up to the Jayson Blair scandal.

Raines appeared as a guest on the television show "The Colbert Report" on July 24, 2006. He and Colbert's discussion touched on subjects including the release of his new book and the Jayson Blair scandal.

On January 14th 2008 it was announced that Raines will become a Media columnist for Condé Nast Portfolio. His first column was published in the March issue of the magazine, and analysed the possibilities of Rupert Murdoch buying, and therewith destroying – "The New York Times".

Books

In addition to his work as a journalist, Raines has published several books; "My Soul Is Rested" and "Whiskey Man" in 1977 and "Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis" in 1993. He contributed to "Campaign Money", published in 1976.

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.portfolio.com/views/columns/2008/03/17/Howell-Raines-on-Rupert-Murdoch/ Portfolio column]