Washington Post Top Editor Calls It Quits

The Washington Post's executive editor is retiring, he said today, after a 17-year run that included many prizes, painful staff cuts, and the rise of the Internet. A low-profile but highly respected figure, Leonard Downie Jr. told his staff he would miss the paper. "At the same time I'm ready to do this, because so much further change now needs to take place at the newspaper and Web site, and someone else should be tackling that."

The Post won 25 Pulitzer Prizes on Downie's watch, including six this April and one on secret CIA prisons Downie ran despite a personal request from President Bush that he kill the story. The Post's new recently appointed publisher, Katherine Weymouth, has said publicly that she is searching for a new editor for the Post and has interviewed a number of candidates. (More Washington Post stories.)