By KWMU
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kwmu/local-kwmu-491400.mp3
Post-Dispatch editor takes over
St. Louis, MO – Thursday wass the first day on the job for the Post-Dispatch's new editor. Ellen Soeteber resigned as editor last month.
Managing Editor Arnie Robbins was immediately named to take over the top job, starting today. "It's just time to go," Soeteber said after the newsroom meeting in which she announced her resignation. "Sometimes, things are as simple as that and as complicated as that."
Robbins, 52, will be just the paper's seventh editor in 127 years. He joined the newspaper in May 1997 as director of news staff and organizational development and was named deputy editor six months later. He previously spent 13 years at the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
"I think the future is going to be great, and it's going to be bumpy, and exciting, and really, really challenging in a rapidly changing industry," Robbins said last month. "But I think we will thrive in it because we have what it takes to be a terrific newspaper and Web site."
Also earlier this month, the newspaper announced that 130 employees, including 40 in the newsroom, had accepted early retirement offers from Lee Enterprises Inc., which purchased Pulitzer Inc. for $1.46 billion in June.
Of all that has happened at the paper this year - including being bought by Lee Enterprises and getting a complete redesign - Robbins told KWMUs Tom Weber that losing those staff members to early retirement has been the biggest change.