New York Times names new editor

Keller has been with the New York Times for 19 years

The New York Times has appointed a new executive editor, to restore credibility and morale after a plagiarism scandal.

Bill Keller - a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and former managing editor of the newspaper - succeeds Howell Raines, who resigned from the top editorial position in June.

Mr Raines and managing editor Gerald Boyd stepped down after a 27-year-old journalist, Jayson Blair, was found to have plagiarized and fabricated information in numerous articles.

Mr Keller, 54, told the Associated Press that he hoped he could "quickly put the wounds behind us and move on".

In an address to the journalists on Monday, Mr Keller said: "This news organisation is a national treasure. I will do everything in my power to uphold its high standards, preserve its integrity and build on its achievements."

Liability

In a television interview last week, Mr Raines said the paper's publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr, had forced him to step down after it became clear that he no longer carried the trust of the newsroom.

Jayson Blair's plagiarism dented the New York Times' credibility

Mr Raines - who critics accused of having an authoritarian style - said his efforts to pull the New York Times out of a culture of complacency had been his undoing.

"I moved the news room too far and too fast," he said.

Then, he added, "I stepped on a land mine named Jayson Blair" and became a "liability" as a result.

After Mr Raines's resignation former executive editor Joseph Lelyveld came out of retirement to run the newspaper in the interim.

Mr Keller, who joined the New York Times in 1984, is due to take up his new post on 30 July.

A new managing editor is due to be announced in the coming weeks.