NY Times names Abramson its first female executive editor

The New York Times on Thursday named its first female top editor in its 160-year history, promoting the paper’s current No. 2 newsroom executive to the post.

Jill Abramson, 57, will take over the helms of the Gray Lady on Sept. 6, when Executive Editor Bill Keller, 62, steps down after eight years to write full time for the paper.

“It’s meaningful to me,” said Abramson, a lifelong New Yorker. “In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion.”

Abramson, who began working for the Times in 1997 and had previously been a bureau chief and investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was tapped by Keller in 2003 to be managing editor.

In turn, Abramson on Thursday named Washington Bureau chief Dean Baquet, who also was thought to be a contender for the top post, as her managing editor.