Leonard Downie, Jr.

Leonard "Len" Downie, Jr. (born May 1, 1942), the longserving executive editor of "The Washington Post". He held this position since September 1, 1991, after serving as managing editor for seven years. Downie announced his retirement as executive editor on Monday, June 23, 2008 which took effect on September 8, 2008 [Citation
last = Kurtz
first = Howard
author-link =
title = Washington Post Editor Leonard Downie Jr. Stepping Down
newspaper = The Washington Post
pages =
year = 2008
date = June 23
url = http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062301440.html?hpid=topnews.] . Downie assumed the title upon the retirement of long serving executive editor Ben Bradlee. During Downie's tenure as executive editor, "The Washington Post" has won 25 Pulitzer Prizes. [Kurtz, Howard. " [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/07/AR2008040701359.html?nav=hcmodule&sid=ST2008040701372 The Post Wins 6 Pulitzer Prizes; Walter Reed, Cheney and Virginia Tech Coverage Recognized] ", "The Washington Post", April 8, 2008. Retrieved on April 8, 2008.] Downie currently serves as Vice President At Large.

Downie is the author of four nonfiction books. Random House will publish his fiction debut in January 2009.

Personal

Downie grew up in and around Cleveland, Ohio. He received his BA and MA degrees in journalism and political science from Ohio State University. 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.

Career

Downie first joined the "Washington Post" as a summer intern in 1964. He soon became a well-known local investigative reporter in Washington, specializing in crime, courts, housing and urban affairs. This reporting won him two Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild Front Page awards, The American Bar Association Gavel Award for legal reporting, and the John Hancock Award for excellent business and financial writing. In 1971 he was awarded a two-year Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship, studying urban problems in the United States and Europe [ [http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF001971/Downie/Downie10/Downie10.html The Urban Order of the North ] ] .

Before this, Downie worked on the Post's Metropolitan staff as a reporter and editor for 15 years, and ran the staff as Assistant Managing Editor for Metropolitan news from 1974 until 1979. As Deputy Metropolitan Editor, Downie supervised much of The Post’s Watergate coverage. He was named London correspondent in 1979 and returned to Washington in 1982 as National Editor. In 1984, he became Managing Editor. Downie is a director of The Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service.

According to Bob Woodward's 2005 book "The Secret Man", Downie was one of the few people to know the true identity of Watergate scandal informant Deep Throat before it was revealed to be Mark Felt.

Bibliography

Downie is the author of four books:
*"Justice Denied", (1971)
*"Mortgage on America", (1974)
*"The New Muckrakers", (1976) a study of investigative reporting; and
*"The News About the News: American Journalism in Peril", (2002), with Robert G. Kaiser
*"The Rules of the Game" (fiction, to be published by Random House in January 2009)

References

External links

* [http://www.washpost.com/news_ed/news/edit_bio.shtml Washington Post] editor bio
* [http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF001971/Downie/Downie10/Downie10.html The Urban Order of the North] a 1972 report by Downie on the urban problems in Vällingby, Sweden and Nordweststadt, Frankfurt, Germany.