Leonard "Len" Downie, Jr. (born May 1, 1942), was the executive editor of The Washington Post. He held the position for seventeen years, starting 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.[1] 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.[2] Downie currently serves as Vice President At Large. Starting in the Fall of 2009, Downie also is the Weil Family Professor of Journalism at the Cronkite School at Arizona State University.
Downie is the author of four nonfiction books. Random House published his fiction debut, The Rules of the Game, on January 13, 2009.
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Downie grew up in and around Cleveland, Ohio. He received his BA and MA degrees in journalism and political science from The Ohio State University. While at Ohio State, he served as sports editor of the student newspaper, The Lantern. During his tenure there he covered Ohio State football as well as the riots that surrounded the school's decision to turn down a bid to the 1962 Rose Bowl.[3] 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, two stepchildren and grandfather to two grandchildren. His eldest son, David L. Downie, is a scholar of international environmental policy.
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 Journalism Fellowship, [4] studying urban problems in the United States and Europe.[5]
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. As Executive Editor, Downie led the newsroom to 25 Pulitzer Prizes, including three gold medals for public service. Downie's mantra—reflected in routine stories as well as such Pulitzer-winning efforts as the 2007 exposé of shoddy conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center—was "accountability journalism." 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.
Downie is the author of five books: