Chronicle editor takes larger role for Hearst { Phil Bronstein }

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 1/24/8 | Carolyn Said

[SmithL]

SAN FRANCISCO -- Chronicle Editor Phil Bronstein announced Wednesday he is leaving his post to assume a broader role in the newspaper division of the Hearst Corp., which owns The Chronicle.

He will remain executive vice president of The Chronicle and will take on the title of editor at large for the paper and the Hearst newspaper division, working on strategic issues and investigative projects, he said in an afternoon meeting with the staff.

He said a new editor, one with "deep roots in the Bay Area," will be announced in the next couple of days.

Bronstein, 57, became editor of the Hearst-owned Examiner in 1991 after 11 years as a reporter and foreign correspondent at the paper. He was named editor of The Chronicle when Hearst bought the paper in 2000 and merged the two newsrooms.

"I am enormously proud of what we've accomplished together here. We have saved people's lives, helped countless others have better lives, and held public figures and institutions accountable to those they are supposed to serve," Bronstein said. "And we have done these things consistently and forcefully."

Bronstein presided over 17 tumultuous years at the Examiner and Chronicle that included a contentious 1994 strike, the merging of the once-rival newspapers, and significant staff cutting as The Chronicle, like the rest of the newspaper industry, coped with the wrenching changes brought by the Internet.

[SmithL]

Phil Bronstein, editor of the Chronicle since 2000, announces he is leaving his position to assume a broader role in the newspaper division of the Hearst Corp.

[SmithL]

fwiw

[abb]

You mean the former Mr. Sharon Stone?

[SmithL]

Yes, as well as being Komodo Dragon bait.

[abb]

Well, at least he didn't get bitten by a Moose!!