Former editor Joseph Lelyveld has been named to take the reins while a new editor is found. He was editor for seven years until his retirement in 2001.
The New York Times has been firefighting since Jayson Blair, a 27-year-old African-American reporter at the newspaper, was revealed to have filed numerous stories for the newspaper where interviews and quotes had been made up or lifted from other sources.
The sacking of Blair has led to much discussion in the US about positive discrimination and debate whether he would have been allowed to continue at the Times for as long as he did if he had been white. A year before the Blair scandal came to light a senior editor at the paper sent an email saying that Blair must be stopped writing for the paper.
It emerged that often he would file a story from his home in Brooklyn using a laptop and a mobile phone, with staff at the newspaper under the impression that he was filing copy from the field.
The company has undertaken an exercise in self-flagellation over the scandal, publishing a front-page story and in-depth analysis of Blair's inaccuracies. Senior management at the paper, including Raines, Boyd and publisher Arthur Sulzberger, later held a staff meeting where issues over Raines' management style were addressed. Both Raines and Boyd apologised to staff at the meeting for the mistakes they had made.
The scandal has also led to the resignation of a second journalist at the paper, the Pulitzer-prize winning Rick Bragg, who resigned after failing to reveal a freelance source for a story.
Speaking about the resignation, Sulzberger said: "Howell and Gerald have tendered their resignations, and I have accepted them with sadness based on what we believe is best for the Times.
"They have made enormous contributions during their tenure, including an extraordinary seven Pulitzer Prizes in 2002 and another this year. I appreciate all of their efforts in continuing the legacy of our great newspaper."
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