Leonard Downie, Jr.

Leonard "Len" Downie, Jr. (born May 1, 1942), the American journalist, was Executive Editor of The Washington Post from 1991-2008. He worked in the Post newsroom for 44 years as Executive Editor, Managing Editor, National Editor, London correspondent, Assistant Managing Editor for Metropolitan News, Deputy Metropolitan Editor, and as an award winning investigative and local reporter. Downie became Executive Editor upon the retirement of Ben Bradlee. During Downie's tenure as Executive Editor, The Washington Post won 25 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper has won during the term of a single Executive Editor, including three Pulitzer Gold Medals for Public Service. Downie currently serves as Vice President At Large at the Washington Post Company, as Weil Family Professor of Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, and as a member of several advisory boards associated with journalism and public affairs.

Downie is the author of four nonfiction books: Justice Denied (1971), Mortgage on America (1974), The New Muckrakers (1976); and The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril (2002), co-authored with Robert G. Kaiser. In 2003, The News About the News won the Goldsmith Award from the Joan Shorenstein Center at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Downie was also a major contributor to Ten Blocks from the White House: Anatomy of the Washington Riots of 1968; has written many newspaper and magazine articles; and co-authored “The Reconstruction of American Journalism,” a major report on the state of the news media,published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In 2009, Random House published his fiction debut, The Rules of the Game.

Downie grew up in and around Cleveland, Ohio. He decided to become a journalist at the age of eleven and edited student newspapers in elementary school, Wilbur Wright Junior High School and John Marshall High School. He received his BA and MA degrees in journalism and political science from The Ohio State University. While at Ohio State, he served as sports editor of the student newspaper, The Lantern. During his tenure there he covered Ohio State football as well as the riots that surrounded the school's decision to turn down a bid to the 1962 Rose Bowl. In June 1993, he received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Ohio State, in conjunction with his address during the university's commencement exercises. Downie lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, Janice. He is the father of four grown children, two stepchildren and grandfather to two grandchildren. His eldest son, David L. Downie, is a scholar of international environmental policy.

...
Wikipedia