McClatchy's VP/News Weaver to Retire at Year's End

By: E&P Staff The McClatchy Co. said today that Howard Weaver, its vice president of news, has announced his retirement at the end of the year.

Weaver, 58, began his journalism career as a stringer at the now McClatchy-owned Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News. He led that paper to two Pulitzer Prize wins for public service journalism.

"I've been working at newspapers one way or another for 40 years now, almost 30 of them with McClatchy, and leaving marks one of the biggest transitions in my life," Weaver said in a statement. "Journalism is the profession that has defined me, and McClatchy is the company that nurtured me. It's hard to leave when friends and colleagues are working so hard in such a tough period, but one chapter has to end before another can begin. I feel like there's another chapter left for me."

Weaver plans to remain in Sacramento where he plans "to think and try to write and go camp in the desert."

Gary Pruitt, CEO of McClatchy, said in a statement: "Howard really has been a visionary executive, and we can't thank him enough for all his leadership and distinguished service. I've worked closely with Howard for 25 years, dating back to the day when I was a young lawyer vetting stories coming out of his newsroom in Anchorage. I'll miss him both professionally and personally and wish him all the happiness in the world in retirement and the next adventures in his life."

McClatchy is working to find Weaver's successor.

Weaver briefly left the Daily News in 1976 to help start the Alaska Advocate, a statewide weekly newspaper. It closed in 1979 and Weaver rejoined the Daily News the same year that McClatchy purchased it. He served as managing editor and editor of the paper. From 1992 to 1993 he earned a master of philosophy degree from the University of Cambridge in England. In 1995 he moved to McClatchy's corporate offices eventually serving as editor of the editorial pages at the Sacramento Bee. In 2001 he was named McClatchy's vice president of news.

For more on Weaver's retirement, check out his post on his blog.