NEW YORK, Jul 29, 2002 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The New York Times announced today several editorial appointments:

"These appointments represent important career development opportunities earned by a richly talented group of editors," Mr. Raines said. "As it happens, all of these individuals are coming off very successful assignments during one of the most demanding news periods in recent decades. I am immensely proud of all of them and look forward to the creativity and energy they will bring to their new assignments."

Discussing the changes in book development, Mr. Carley said, "As both an author and an editor, Susan's depth and breadth of experience will provide extraordinary leadership as we expand our offerings in the world of books. She'll be a worthy successor to Mike Levitas, who founded our book development program five years ago and created dozens of titles during his tenure. We are very grateful to him for all he did to enhance The Times's presence in books."

Ms. Chira, 44, became editor of the Week in Review section at The New York Times in 1999 after having served as deputy foreign editor of the newspaper since 1997. Previously she held reporting positions including national education correspondent; correspondent for The Times in Tokyo; and reporter in Albany and Stamford and in the business section.

Ms. Chira received a B.A degree in history and East Asian studies from Harvard University in 1980. As an undergraduate, she was a reporter and later president of The Harvard Crimson. She studied Japanese for a year and a half at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo and at Middlebury College, Vermont. She is the author of "A Mother's Place" (Harper Collins, 1998).

Ms. McElroy, 43, joined The New York Times's sports department as a copy editor in 1991, upon the closing of The National, a sports newspaper where she served as a senior editor and national copy chief. She worked on the Times national desk for a period in 1998.

Previously Ms. McElroy held editing posts at Newsday and at The Austin American-Statesman. She graduated from Texas A&M in 1981.

Ms. Roberts, 50, became national editor in 2000, after having served as its Op-Ed page editor since 1995. She previously worked as assistant national editor; as deputy Op-Ed page editor; as foreign affairs editor for The Times Magazine, and as deputy editor of the Week in Review.

Earlier Ms. Roberts was deputy opinion page editor and a columnist and editorial writer for The Minneapolis Star. She was previously a news editor for The Hayward Daily Review and affiliated papers, in California.

Ms. Roberts received a B.A. degree in politics from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1974. She studied Russian at the University of Toronto and received an M.A. degree in journalism and Russian area studies from Indiana University.

Mr. Roberts, 46, was named deputy national editor last year. He previously served as national political editor, coordinating coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign, the election and the 36-day aftermath. Previously he worked as deputy metropolitan editor for regional news. He came to The Times in 1987 as a copy editor and held a variety of editing jobs on the national, sports and metropolitan news desks.

Mr. Roberts began his journalism career as a news reporter with the Richmond Times-Dispatch and later held editing jobs at the Baltimore News American and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Ms. Roberts and Mr. Roberts are not related.)

Mr. Levitas, 72, became editorial director of Book Development at The New York Times in 1995, after having served as Op-Ed page editor since 1990. Among his many past positions at The Times were the editorship of the Book Review, from 1983 to 1989. He was named metropolitan editor in 1976 and editor of the Week in Review in 1977.

Earlier, Mr. Levitas was a news writer for the Voice of America and then a reporter for The New York Post, where he won a George Polk Memorial Award for investigative reporting on labor unions.

He also worked at Time magazine as an assistant editor before moving to The Times in 1965. A graduate of Brooklyn College, Mr. Levitas is a former Nieman Fellow at Harvard and was a visiting scholar under the Woodrow Wilson fellowship program. He is the author of "America in Crisis" (Holt, 1969).

The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT), a leading media company with 2001 revenues of $3.0 billion, publishes The New York Times, The Boston Globe and 16 other newspapers; owns eight network-affiliated television stations and two New York radio stations; and has more than 40 Web sites, including NYTimes.com and Boston.com. In 2002 the Company was ranked No. 1 in the publishing industry in Fortune's list of America's Most Admired Companies. Among all 550 companies on the list, the Company ranked No. 1 in quality of products/services and No. 1 in social responsibility. The Company's core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment.

This press release can be downloaded from www.nytco.com