NYT deputy biz editor O’Kelley considering buyout

Winnie O’Kelley, the deputy business editor The New York Times, is considering taking the newspaper’s buyout offer.

Michael Calderone of The Huffington Post writes, “Winnie O’Kelley, deputy editor for Business Day, confirmed to The Huffington Post on Friday afternoon that she is still considering whether or not to take the buyout, but declined to comment further.”

If she leaves, then The Times’ business section will lose a second top editor in as many months. Business editor Larry Ingrassia left last month for another job at the paper and was replaced by Dean Murphy.

O’Kelley received 2012 Lawrence Minard Editor Award, named in memory of Laury Minard, founding editor of Forbes Global and a former final judge for the Loeb Awards. This award honors excellence in business, financial and economic journalism editing and recognizes an editor whose work does not receive a byline or whose face does not appear on the air for the work covered.

O’Kelley directs the paper’s reporting on the economy and helps shape the overall business coverage. For the last three years, she has played a key role overseeing the housing collapse and mortgage bust as well as the recession and financial crisis.

For most of her career at the Times, O’Kelley has worked in the business news department, frequently with primary oversight of financial markets. Her work encompassed the recovery of Wall Street from the September 11, 2001, attacks and in subsequent years a round of financial scandals that brought down several companies, including Enron and WorldCom and the accounting firm Arthur Andersen. The lead financial columnist, Gretchen Morgenson, won a Pulitzer Prize for her work during this time.

As assistant business and financial editor, O’Kelley oversaw the paper’s coverage of the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management, the hedge fund that threatened the financial markets.