Looks like Arianna and Twitter got the last laugh. “Times media editor . . . had an intervention with Keller to explain how his columns were hurting their ability to cover the industry. “

June 2nd, 2011

New York Mag has the scoop on what led Bill Keller to resign as Executive Editor of the Times:

Keller’s columns infuriated some members of the newsroom, especially the Times‘ media desk, who felt that the executive editor should be a kind of impartial honest broker. Times media editor Bruce Headlam and media columnist David Carr had an intervention with Keller to explain how his columns were hurting their ability to cover the industry. “I heard from Bruce, Dave and Brian [Stelter] after the Arianna column had complicated their lives, which it was not intended to do,” Keller told me. “Even though I knew I would cause a certain amount of consternation in the building, I decided that was okay because it was worth having a conversation about this.”

Then, last month, Keller wrote a column critical of Twitter, calling it “the enemy of contemplation.” Inside the Times, the column set off more alarms. Social media staffers complained that Keller was signaling that he didn’t like Twitter even as the paper was trying to encourage reporters to embrace the new tool. Keller met with them to clarify his views and as a concession, agreed to convince Abramson to join Twitter. “She has set up a meeting with one of the social media people to get twitterized,” Keller told me.

Somewhere Arianna Huffington is laughing her ass off.