Robert Blau, a top projects and investigations editor at the Chicago Tribune, was named yesterday as the Sun's managing editor, the No. 2 position in the newsroom.
Blau, 45, is a prize-winning editor and reporter with varied newsroom experience, including a stint early in his career as a movie reviewer.
He comes to The Sun as part of a new management team put together by Editor Timothy A. Franklin, who began work in Baltimore in January. Blau replaces Anthony F. Barbieri, who took early retirement about three months ago, and will be responsible for much of the daily operations and the direction of the newspaper.
"I've gotten the opportunity to study the paper, and I have come to admire it as one of the truly distinguished American newspapers," Blau said in a phone interview from his office at the Chicago Tribune, the flagship newspaper for the Tribune Co., which also owns The Sun. "The opportunity to build on the great journalistic legacies was too good to pass up."
The appointment of Blau, who will start work at The Sun after the November election, comes at a time when budget cuts have taken a toll on the newsroom staff, which numbers about 368.
36 have left
About three dozen reporters, editors and other newsroom staff took buyouts or left voluntarily in the past year. At the same time, The Sun has rolled out or is planning several new features for readers, including sections on professional football, health and science and the workplace.
Blau said he can "lift spirits" by promoting distinctive journalism in every department of the newspaper.
Franklin said in a memo and again during a staff meeting yesterday that he chose Blau from among four finalists based on his past performance.
"Bob is an editor with a proven record for conceiving and executing some of the most creative and important newspaper projects in the nation in recent years," he said. "Bob is an editor who thinks big and has big aspirations for The Sun, and he embodies the journalistic values and standards that make this one of the best newspapers in America."
Also yesterday, Franklin promoted metropolitan editor Sandra A. Banisky, a long-time Sun journalist, to deputy managing editor for news, overseeing metro, national, foreign and Washington news. Franklin said she will be responsible for "elevating the quality and creativity of our daily and Sunday Page One reports."
