After 37 years, a distinguished and imaginative journalist is leaving The Times.
 | | David Smoler |
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Few columnists have better embodied the journalist values of The New York Times than Nicholas Kristof, which makes it all the harder to say that he has decided to leave us after a storied 37-year career. |
An Opinion columnist since 2001, Nick redefined the role in the best possible way — elevating the journalistic form to a new height of public service with a mix of incisive reporting, profound empathy and a determination to bear witness to those struggling and suffering across the globe. |
Today we published a farewell essay by Nick, capturing several highlights of his years at The Times and explaining why he is leaving. "I want to make clear that while I've spent my career on the front lines of human suffering and depravity, covering genocide, war, poverty and injustice," Nick writes, "I've emerged firmly believing that we can make real progress by summoning the political will." |
Nick is, at heart, a reporter: As a foreign correspondent, Nick won a Pulitzer in 1990, with his colleague and wife, Sheryl WuDunn, for their work about the pro-democracy movement in China and at Tiananmen Square. As a columnist, Nick continued traveling to country after country to bring the hardest truths and the most inspiring stories to our readers. |
Nick was a finalist for the Pulitzer in commentary in 2004 and 2005 before winning in 2006. The Pulitzer Prize Board that year cited "his graphic, deeply reported columns that, at personal risk, focused attention on genocide in Darfur and that gave voice to the voiceless in other parts of the world." |
Nick has been a generous colleague and constant source of wise counsel, journalistic creativity and ambitious standard-setting in his years with us. He is often the first to welcome a newcomer to Times Opinion or congratulate a colleague on a success or good fortune; his generosity really knows no end. But as much as anything, Nick has shown us how to pursue journalism as both a noble and a purposeful mission, to help the less fortunate and force the powerful and privileged not to look away from the pain so common in this world. He did so not in a hectoring or guilt-inducing way, but in the spirit of trying to make a difference. |
Nick, you made a difference in countless lives over the years, and certainly in ours. Thank you for your work, for your friendship and leadership, and for the example you set for journalists everywhere. |
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