NPR announced today that after an eight month search they have named Vivian Schiller President and Chief Executive Officer, effective January 5, 2009. Schiller comes to NPR from The New York Times Company where she is currently serving as Senior Vice President and General Manager of NYTimes.com. Per the press release:

During her tenure at The New York Times, she led the day-to-day operations of NYTimes.com, the largest newspaper website on the Internet, overseeing product, technology, marketing, classifieds, strategic planning and business development. Before joining NYTimes.com, Ms. Schiller spent four years as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Discovery Times Channel, a joint venture of The New York Times and Discovery Communications.

Full release after the jump.

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Thomas Friedman approves

As part of its “journalistic mission to get people talking on campuses,” nytimes.com is set to give free access for its often-ridiculed TimesSelect content to all those with a “.edu” e-mail address. The open access begins March 13. Vivian Schiller, senior vice president and general manager at NYTimes.com: “We wanted to open that up so that college students and professors can have a dialogue.”

The Times also wanted to drum up buzz for its “Win a Trip with Nick” contest, in which op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof, chooses one college or graduate student and one middle or high school teacher to accompany him on a June trip to Africa.

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