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Nobody as yet seems to have good information that L.A. Times managing editor Dean Baquet is on the short list for New York Times executive editor, but he makes the unofficial lists of nearly all the media handicappers. Jack Shafer at Slate, for one, nominates Baquet as his outsider of choice:
"At the Los Angeles Times, where he's managing editor, Baquet oversees a sort of New York Times-in-exile with former NY Timesmen Sam Howe Verhovek, Kevin Sack, Douglas Frantz, and others from the Times working for him. Universally respected at 43rd Street, Baquet could 'make the newsroom' happy again..."
"The knock against Baquet is that he's 'too young.' The Times appoints editors who tend only to leave at the mandatory retirement age of 65. At 46, Baquet could conceivably be editor still in the year 2022, and that's not good for the Times, which has benefited by having three editors since 1986."