Bruni to leave NYT column for Duke University

Columnist Frank Bruni is leaving The New York Times for a position at Duke University, the company announced on Monday. 

Bruni will be giving up his column in late June to serve as the endowed chair in journalism at Duke.

Bruni, an award-winning journalist, has written columns and newsletters for the Times for more than 25 years, after stints at the Detroit Free Press and New York Post. 

“Along the way, Frank was an editor’s dream, and never missed a deadline, not even the ones he set for himself. For example, the morning of Trump’s covid diagnosis, when he emailed his editor at 6 a.m. to say ‘I can file in 45 minutes.’ That’s exactly what he did. And then he provided a list of headline options and wrote his own tweets before most of us had even gotten out of bed,” the Times said in announcing Bruni’s planned departure. “Frank will continue his newsletter and write pieces for the Sunday Review as a contributing Opinion writer after he leaves in June.” 

Burni attended the University of North Carolina and Chapel Hill, a bitter rival of Duke, before attending Columbia University. 

While at the Free Press, he covered the Persian Gulf War and was named a Pulitzer finalist in feature writing for his coverage of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. 

At the Times, Bruni covered several presidents and at one time served as the paper’s bureau chief in Rome. 

“While The Times loses one of its most beloved columnists, the Research Triangle will gain someone who will actually know what he’s talking about if he becomes one of those Durhamites who say their restaurants are as good as New York’s,” the Times wrote.