The Passing Of The Torch

It has been a little more than two months since Knight Ridder’s Clark Hoyt was told he would be replaced by David Westphal, the McClatchy D.C. bureau chief. “After nearly seven years of shepherding the growing newsroom at 12th and G,” Hoyt is a casualty of the McCatchy Co. purchasing his parent company, and by midsummer will not longer be running the bureau as Washington editor.

After 38 years with Knight Ridder, Hoyt will wrap-up the transition with a consulting job with McClatchy for the next year or so. After that Hoyt has no set plans other than rebuilding a 1940 Ford Deluxe Coupe, and maybe writing a few books. But he stressed that he wants to continue working: “I have no intention of retiring in the near future.”

E&P’s Joe Strupp asks if becoming an editor elsewhere is possible, Hoyt said such a move is possible but not likely: “I am at a stage where I am doubtful I would, but I wouldn’t close the door on anything.” Hoyt on his departure: “It is very understandable that they want their own person,” he said of incoming editor Westphal, “who is a very good person to run the operation.”

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