Thelen retiring

Tampa Trib publisher Gil Thelen, one of the pioneers behind reorienting the newsroom away from bricks-and-mortar beats when he was at The (Columbia., S.C.) State and one of the champions of convergence after he moved to the Tampa Tribune in 1998, says he'll retire as publisher there June 30.

"I will continue at the News Center part time as a consultant, focusing on multimedia journalism, organizational change and communitydevelopment," he writes in his note.

He's had 45 years in the business, primarily with Media General and Knight Ridder, but also with the AP and Consumers Union.

Thelen could provoke a strong reaction from a roomful of journalists at times, but were it not for him we might not be as far along in "reinventing" ourselves as we are now, even though there's still a long way to go.

(A bit more from E&P.)

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