29 . ( Manual typewriters were still being used in the newsroom ; he still has his old Underwood at his home .) In 1991 , Baron was made in charge of Column One for the Los Angeles Times , as well as computer-assisted reporting and the newpaper ’ s polling organization . The Los Angeles Times had a regional edition in Orange County , in direct competition with The Orange County Register . At the time , it was the fifth most populous county in the country ; Baron oversaw a staff of 165 people from 1993 to 1996 .
Baron was offered a job in 1997 at The New York Times as associate managing editor responsible for nighttime news operations , as the newspaper was developing a national edition . His day began at 3 p . m . and ended in the early-morning hours . He oversaw updates of every edition — two national , two regional , and three local editions . If stories broke late at night , the paper would be updated , and sometimes the front page would be torn apart . If there was a problematic headline or story lead , if something significant was missing in a story , Baron was in charge of dealing with it .
Editor
In 1999 , Baron was approached by the Miami Herald for a job he always wanted : editor of a major metropolitan newspaper . It was a perfect fit . Baron was a native Floridian . He had been studying Spanish . He knew Miami and had worked at the Herald . It was right at the time when the Elián González case had broken and emerged as a huge controversy . ( Elián was the five-year-old Cuban boy found floating on an inner tube off the coast of South Florida .) Then there was the 2000 presidential election ( Bush v . Gore ). The newspaper did its own ballot recount , even when the U . S . Supreme Court decided that Florida would not conduct a recount . A year and a half after starting at the Herald , Baron was contacted by The Boston Globe about a job offer that he couldn ’ t refuse : leading an even bigger newspaper ( 500 people on staff , compared to 325 ). The Boston area also had larger institutions to cover — major universities , a big financial community , a large scientific community , and a major media market . The Knight Ridder company was making significant cutbacks to the Miami Herald . It was time for Baron to move again .
“ I didn ' t know anybody except one couple in Boston . I didn ' t know anybody at the paper ,” says Baron . On the first day at work , he ordered up the Catholic Church investigation . Six weeks later , the unimaginable happened , 9 / 11 . And in 2004 , the Red Sox won the World Series , the first time in 86 years .
He was there for a total of 11½ years , the longest he has been at any one newspaper job . It became pretty clear that The New York Times Company was going to sell The Boston Globe , which was dealing with some grave financial challenges , Baron says . Then , to his surprise , The Washington Post offered him the editor ’ s position .
Less than a year after Baron had taken over as executive editor of The Washington Post , this legendary newspaper that helped bring down a previous president through its coverage of Watergate was purchased by Amazon . com Inc . founder Jeff Bezos for $ 250 million . That was in 2013 . Baron knew that he was living through an important time in history and needed to keep track of what was going on at the newspaper . He took down notes and kept documents along the way , throwing them in a box with no particular plan to write a book .
A key element of any outstanding newspaper is its objective coverage , and that was important to uphold when the Graham family sold The Washington Post to Bezos , says Baron . This is how he describes it : “ They decided to sell because of all the pressures in the industry and because they ran out of ideas on how to make a sustainable business in the current digital environment . Then they sell to one of the richest people in the world — a huge surprise . He then sets out not only to try to transform the organization for the digital era , but also to make it a media organization that would appeal to people throughout the country and even throughout the world . And then in the summer of 2015 , here comes Donald Trump , a candidate unlike any we ' d ever seen before , who then gets elected and as a president , unlike any we ' d seen before . During his campaign , and during his presidency , he attacked The Washington Post . Because we wouldn ' t be servile or sycophantic , he then started to attack Bezos , hoping that his attacks would have an impact and that Bezos would try to temper the work that we were doing and to influence it in Trump ' s favor . Bezos didn ' t do that . The press plays an important role in our democracy , and The Post played an important role during this particular period where there were enormous threats to our democracy .”
Baron held steadfast to what he believed , despite the extreme challenges at times . He had been thinking for a while about retiring and finally did after the presidential inauguration , in February 2021 . “ The most important role as an editor is to make sure that we ' re doing the best job to create the conditions that allow people on the staff to do their best work , whatever that might involve ,” says Baron . “ Some of that involves hiring the right people . Some of that involves hiring the right reporters , hiring the right editors , putting the right teams together , inspiring good stories , listening to their ideas , and letting those ideas emerge . Or shaping those ideas . There are a whole variety of things that one has to do in order to make sure that you put out the best possible journalistic product . That ' s the primary responsibility of an editor .”
Within weeks after retiring , Baron was at work again , this time on a book . He went back to the box of notes and documents and started organizing them in files by subject and category . He put those files in narrative sequence and then followed that pattern . Most of the book was written from his home in the Berkshires . The book was constantly in his head , and he was eager to get it on paper — even when he wanted to go out and hike . Instead , he stayed home and kept writing . “ It ’ s as if somebody was occupying my brain ,” he says . It took two years to complete — not bad in the book publishing world . Not for Baron , though . “ I ’ m used to working in minutes , not in years . It just seemed like a long time to me .”
Holiday Spring 2024 2023 BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE // // 33