Leonard Downie Jr., Weil Family Professor of Journalism

Leonard Downie Jr. is the Weil Family Professor of Journalism at the Cronkite School, with the faculty rank of professor of practice. He joins the school in the fall of 2009, giving several addresses and working with Cronkite students on special projects. In the spring, he will teach classes. Downie, who is currently vice president-at-large at The Washington Post, served as the newspaper’s executive editor from 1991 to 2008. The Post won 25 Pulitzer Prize during Downie’s 17 years as the top editor, the best record of any editor in history. Downie earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at The Ohio State University and started at the Post as a summer intern reporter in 1964. He became an award-winning local investigative reporter and began moving up the editorial ranks. He helped supervise the Post’s groundbreaking Watergate coverage as deputy metro editor and later worked as assistant managing editor for metropolitan news, London correspondent and national editor. After serving as managing editor for seven years under executive editor Ben Bradlee, he was named Bradlee’s successor in 1991. Downie is the author of four non-fiction books, including “The News about the News” with Robert G. Kaiser. His first work of fiction, a novel about Washington, “The Rules of the Game,” was published earlier this year.