Dean Baquet's role at New York Times expands

Dean Baquet, the Washington bureau chief at the New York Times, will rotate through the managing editor chair for two months this summer. (Read the memo.) It's part of "an unusual and temporary management shuffle" to fill-in for ME Jill Abramson, who is diverting to the digital side of the NYT newsroom for six months of getting up to speed. Baquet, of course, is the former Los Angeles Times editor who resigned under pressure in 2006 over down-Zelling of the newsroom by Tribune and then-publisher David Hiller. Thus began the brief Jim O'Shea era, and before long Hiller was gone too. In his pre-L.A. days Baquet had been a rising star at the NYT, and he returned there in January 2007. Editor Bill Keller's memo today addresses (and tries to dismiss) the speculation that will naturally ensue from Baquet and two other senior editors being tapped for this temporary assignment.