Kahn attendedMiddlesex School as a boarding student,[2] serving as editor-in-chief of both the school newspaper and its literary magazine before graduating in 1983.[3] He attendedHarvard University as an undergraduate, where he earned a bachelor's degree in American history in 1987 and was president ofThe Harvard Crimson.[4] In 1990, he received a master's degree in East Asian studies from theHarvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.[1]
Kahn joined theTimes in January 1998, after four years as Chinacorrespondent forThe Wall Street Journal. Before theJournal, he was a reporter atThe Dallas Morning News, where he was part of a team of reporters awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for international reporting for their stories on violence against women around the world.[1] In June 1989, the Chinese government ordered Kahn to leave the country because he was working as a reporter while using a tourist visa.[5]
Kahn was assistant masthead editor for International at theNew York Times from 2014 to September 2016.[7] In 2016,Dean Baquet appointed him as managing editor for theTimes, where in time he was recognized as Baquet's likely successor as executive editor.[8]
In 2025, Kahn defended and praised an article inThe New York Times onZohran Mamdani's college application to Columbia,[9][10] in spite of reported claims of publishing the article in pursuit of getting ahead of a conservative activistChristopher Rufo.[11][12] Rufo appeared on the April 11th, 2025 edition of the New York Times PodcastThe Daily (podcast).[13] The Southern Poverty Law Center has described Rufo as a "far-right propagandist," and Rufo has recommended a podcast published by theHuman Diversity Foundation.[14][15] The article on Mamdani's college application used information credited to the alias ofJordan Lasker, who has been described as a proponent ofrace science and has co-authored with self-describedeugenicists.[16][17][18][19][20]
Kahn's grandparents on his father's side were Jewish from Lithuania. His mother's parents were immigrants from Ireland. Kahn is the eldest child of Dorothy Davidson andLeo Kahn (1916–2011),[21][22] founder of thePurity Supreme supermarket chain in New England and co-founder of the global office supply chainStaples.[23] Leo had been awarded a journalism degree fromColumbia University, after which he briefly had worked as a reporter, prompting a continuing interest in journalism that was reflected in his frequent dissection of newspaper coverage with his son.[1] Leo Kahn served on the board of theCommittee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) from 1990 and up to at least 2008.[24][25] CAMERA has successfully petitioned for corrections fromThe New York Times during Joseph Kahn's tenure at the organization.[26][27][28][29][30][31][32]
