Former New York Times Editor Bill Keller Quits Paper for Non-Profit

Another in a growing list of New York Times employees has left the paper. Bill Keller, a columnist and one-time editor of the Old Gray Lady, is leaving the paper for The Marshall Project, a non-profit news group focused on the criminal justice system.

“It’s a chance to build something from scratch, which I’ve never done before,” Mr. Keller said in an announcement published by the paper, “and to use all the tools that digital technology offers journalists in terms of ways to investigate and to present on a subject that really matters personally.”

Keller is a Pulitzer Prize winner, a former foreign correspondent, a Times editor and columnist, and has been with the paper for 30 years.

Bill Keller isn’t the first one to flee The New York Times of late. Over the last few years, several high profile writers have left the paper, including Nate Silver, David Pogue, assistant managing editor Jim Roberts, sports editor Joe Sexton, managing editor John Geddes, and culture editor Jon Landman, among others.

This may not be too surprising if reports of the “semi-open revolt” against editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal is any indication. This report comes on top of the report last August that Times executive editor Jill Abramson lost the respect and affection of the newsroom.

The Times isn’t the only newspaper to lose talent, though. A slew of individuals, such as Ezra Klein, Andrew Sullivan, Glenn Greenwald, and others have left print recently to launch full-time into Internet outlets.