BALTIMORE (AP) — Rondra J. Matthews has resigned as publisher and chief executive officer of the Baltimore Sun and will be succeeded by Timothy Ryan, the Tribune Co. announced yesterday.
Mrs. Matthews, who assumed the position in October, was stepping down for personal reasons, the company said.
She said she will be looking for a job that offers more flexibility to help her mother, who lives alone in Williamsburg, Va. “She needs me,” she said.
Mrs. Matthews was president, publisher and CEO of the Tribune-owned Daily Press Inc. in Newport News, Va., before coming to the Sun.
Mr. Ryan will be the fourth publisher at the Sun since the Tribune Co. bought the paper in 2000.
“It’s part of the chaos in the industry in general and the Tribune in particular,” said Sun reporter Mike Hill, a union representative. “It’s unsettling. You wonder what kind of corporation you work for. The Tribune tends to be very hands-on and very chaotic. It’s a bad combination.”
Mr. Hill said Mrs. Matthews had created a good impression in the newsroom in her short tenure, and Mr. Ryan comes with a good reputation.
Mr. Ryan was named vice president for circulation and consumer marketing at the Chicago Tribune in March 2005. He held a similar position at the Sun from July 2000 to February 2005. His new job begins Friday
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