L.A. Times managing editor Dean Baquet should be considered a contender for the top job at the New York Times if Howell Raines does not survive the scandals rocking his newspaper, Seth Mnookin suggests in his online column for Newsweek. A former national editor at the NYT, Baquet is a natural candidate along with Bill Keller, who lost the last editor derby to Raines, and Marty Baron, the Boston Globe editor who held top jobs previously at both Timeses. All say they have not been contacted about the job, Mnookin stresses.

