Unlike The Washington Post, whose last three top editors came from other news organizations — the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe and the Associated Press — the New York Times traditionally chooses the newsroom leader from within.

That meant it was likely I would know its next top editor since I had served as the paper’s public editor, or ombudswoman, from 2012 to 2016. I have been hoping, for some time, that Joe Kahn would get the nod, as he did last week. I know him to be a thoughtful, smart and accomplished newsman and a person of judgment and integrity.