NY Times’ Bill Keller Drops Magazine Column

The soon-to-depart executive editor will also switch from a magazine column to op-ed after an unusual stint in the weekly magazine

It took eight years for Bill Keller to surrender his post as executive editor of the New York Times, but it only took a few months to give up on his latest endeavor at the gray lady.

Keller, who announced in June that he would be stepping down from the Times’ top post in September, has told Women’s Wear Daily that he will end his New York Times Sunday Magazine column in that month as well — just six months after he began in the refurbished weekly.

Instead of pontificating in the magazine, he will join the likes of Paul Krugman and Frank Bruni on the op-ed page.

Keller often struck a discordant tone with certain readers, particularly those of the new media ilk. He has openly criticized Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and Twitter, two examples of his frequent forays into the media criticism arena. Case and point? His last column about Rupert Murdoch.

While Keller is entitled to his opinions on those subjects, there is a bit of damning evidence in the WWD post —  Keller has had to run corrections for five of his 12 columns. While he e-mailed writer John Koblin that none of them “undermined the point of the column,” that is not much of a track record for someone switching to full-time writing duties in September.

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