The New York Times on Tuesday introduced the appointment of veteran journalist Joe Kahn as its next govt editor, the pinnacle newsroom role in the powerful US paper.

Kahn — presently the Times’s variety two-ranked editor — will prevail Dean Baquet, whose eight-yr reign is due to end in June, the day by day said.

The 57-yr-old might be tasked with shaping the virtual destiny of the Times, a main liberal voice in international journalism, as it vies for audiences around the world.

Kahn said securing readers’ trust “in a time of polarization and partisanship” was one of his top priorities.

“We don’t know where the political zeitgeist will move over time,” the Times quoted Kahn as saying.

“Rather than chase that, we want to commit and recommit to being independent,” he said.

Kahn has been managing editor of the Times since 2016 and has been credited with helping guide the paper into the digital era.

In recent years the Times has moved heavily into podcasts and TV documentaries, while its games section is another key source of revenue.

Kahn previously led the Times’s international coverage and in 2006 shared a Pulitzer Prize for reporting in China.

Baquet was the first Black executive editor of the Times and his tenure brought 18 Pulitzer Prizes.

He oversaw hard-hitting expose pieces on Donald Trump’s finances and the sexual misconduct of disgraced former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

But he additionally grappled with controversies, inclusive of an internal investigation that determined that the paper’s award-triumphing podcast “Caliphate” did not meet editorial standards.

The Times stated Baquet has reached the age when Times govt editors typically step down: 65. The paper stated he would live on “to guide an exciting new mission.”