Meredith Kopit Levien To Succeed Mark Thompson As New York Times CEO

The New York Times Co. (NYT) on Monday announced that Meredith Kopit Levien will be succeeding Mark Thompson as CEO of the media company. Kopit Levien joined the company in 2013 and was appointed head of advertising by Thompson. In 2017, she took over the role of chief operating officer and began pushing digital offerings.

Kopit Levien, 49, will take over as CEO on Sept. 8. She stated in an interview that she believes the publication can grow to 10 million subscribers by 2025 and that its struggling advertising business can remain a key part of its business.

“There’s no reason to believe the Times won’t get there and beyond,” she said. “There’s a really big market of people who will pay for quality journalism.”

Previously serving as the Director-General of the BBC, Thompson took over as CEO of the Times in 2012, During his tenure, he oversaw the publication’s push into digital subscriptions, a bid to offset floundering ad sales in a changing news landscape.

“I’ve chosen this moment to step down because we have achieved everything I set out to do when I joined the Times Company eight years ago,” Thompson explained.

Kopit Levien, who once worked at the college newspaper at the University of Virginia, was involved in addressing the recent upheaval at the Times' opinion section.

She previously worked at Atlantic Media, where she became an ad director in 2003. From 2008 to 2013, Kopit Levien worked at Forbes as a publisher and chief revenue officer.

The Times is coming off a strong first quarter, reporting its highest increase in digital subscriptions.