Gary Wortel To Replace Retiring Turner As 'Ft. Worth Star-Telegram' Publisher

By: E&P Staff Gary Wortel, president and publisher of The Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C., will replace Wesley R. Turner as president and publisher of the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, The McClatchy Co. announced Monday.

Turner, who headed the Star-Telegram for the past ten years, is retiring at the end of the year, McClatchy said.

"I want to congratulate Wes on his retirement and a long and distinguished newspaper career that spans more than three decades," McClatchy Chairman and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement. "We're most grateful for Wes's leadership during the past year and a half of McClatchy ownership, and thankful we have a dynamic and talented publisher in Gary to fill this important post."

Wortel, 51, has been president of publisher of the Sun News since 2005. He came to Myrtle Beach from the St. Paul Pioneer Press in Minnesota, where he was the vice president of advertising and marketing.

Previously, Wortel worked at The Tennessean in Nashville from 1993 to 2001, first as display advertising manager and then advertising director. From 1978 to 1993, he worked for the San Jose Mercury News, holding a variety of marketing and sales executive positions.

Wortel started Weekly Surge, an alternative newsweekly, at the Sun News.

Turner, 57, began his newspaper career at the old Fort Worth Press after graduating the University of Texas at Austin in 1973. When the newspaper was folded in 1975, Turner moved to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, rising through the ranks to become the vice president of advertising.

In 1987, Turner moved to California as president of the PennySaver publications. In 1990, he became executive vice president and general manager of The Kansas City Star, where he served until his appointment as publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1997.

"With both daughters married and our first grandchild due in December, it just seemed the right time to step back and smell the roses," Turner said in a statement explaining his retirement. "(Fort Worth Star-Telegram vice president of administration) David Ivory's premature death earlier this year has weighed heavily on my decision."

Turner said he and his wife, Shirley, plan to remain in Fort Worth, splitting time between the city and their beach house in San Clemente, Calif.