Walter Baranger
Vice President
Walter Baranger, former senior editor of news operations at The New York Times, joined InquireFirst as vice president in August 2017.
Baranger has a deep understanding of the challenges facing journalists in Latin America and around the world. During his 27-year tenure at The Times, he logged more than 3 million airline miles traveling to more than 60 countries and nearly all of the U.S. states in support of the Times newsroom.
His accomplishments and awards include The New York Times Publisher’s Award for introducing satellite communications to the newsroom, and an additional Publisher’s Award for designing an online version of the Times Manual of Style and Usage.
Baranger’s departure from The Times came 46 years after he sold his first news story to the Los Angeles Times for $10. Over the decades, Baranger has worked as a reporter and editor at The San Diego Union and Evening Tribune, as a copy editor and columnist at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside and even as a reporter for high school sports at The Orange County Register.
He has covered 13 wars and conflicts, several Olympics, and countless political conventions and special events including the impeachment trial of President Clinton, 9/11, the Oklahoma City bombing and Hurricane Katrina. Baranger was The New York Times Company’s longtime delegate to the International Press Telecommunications Council, and was liaison between the newsroom and major news wire services.
Baranger is a 1986 graduate of California State University, Fullerton. He returned to his alma mater in August 2017, this time as a full-time journalism professor in the College of Communications.
