Foreign Editor of 'The Sun' of Baltimore Quits for Pew Center Post

By: Joe Strupp Robert Ruby, foreign editor of the Sun in Baltimore, is leaving the paper to become a senior editor at the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., according to a staff memo sent to employees on Friday.

The memo, first posted on the Poynter.org Romenesko Web site, says Ruby will cover religion and public life. It also notes that the Sun will "be reorganizing the national/foreign desk operation." But it offered no specifics on how that would occur.

Ruby began at the paper as a police reporter, the memo notes. He eventually became Paris bureau chief, then ran the paper's Jerusalem bureau. He later took the post of deputy foreign editor, then in 2001 became foreign editor. "In that job, he has overseen coverage of such breaking news as Sept. 11, the London subway bombings and the death of Pope John Paul II, as well as foreign enterprise," the memo stated.

Ruby's departure comes at a time when the paper and several other Tribune dailies have been cutting back foreign coverage, including a recent announcement that the Sun would shutdown operations in Moscow and Johannesburg.