Baltimore Sun Editor Trif Alatzas Adds Publisher Role

Baltimore Sun editor Trif Alatzas, left, has taken on the additional role of publisher as part of a reorganization at Tribune Publishing Co. that named nine editors as publishers and further blurred the lines between the editorial and business sides.

“By giving our newsroom leaders dual responsibilities, we are ensuring our local brands remain vital to the communities they serve with our journalists and creators producing premium, compelling content across all mediums,” Justin Dearborn, Tribune Publishing’s new CEO, said in a statement.

According to a story in The Sun, Alatzas is a resident of Bel Air and was known to many in The Sun’s newsroom when he worked at his family’s former restaurant, a diner located close to the newspaper’s Calvert Street offices. He later interned at the now defunct Evening Sun and joined The Sun in 2002 after working for newspapers in Rochester, N.Y., and Wilmington, Del. After heading sports, business and digital media, he became the top editor in 2013. He replaces Richard J. “Rick” Daniels, who lost his position in the transition, as publisher.

The Sun story noted that it has an average daily print circulation of 121,000 and Sunday circulation of 259,000, while The Sun’s digital audience has grown.

Alatzas now oversees a staff of about 720 people at the Baltimore Sun Media Group, which includes The Capital in Annapolis, The Carroll County Times, City Paper, Towson Times and other community newspapers and their websites.

According to USA Today, those who were given the additional title, effective immediately, are: Davan Maharaj of the Los Angeles Times; Bruce Dold of the Chicago Tribune; Howard Saltz of the Sun Sentinel (Broward County, Fla.); Jeff Light of The San Diego Union-Tribune; Avido Khahaifa of the Orlando Sentinel; Andrew Julien of the Hartford Courant; Dave Erdman of The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa..); and Marisa Porto of the Daily Press (Newport News, Va.).

Photo: Baltimore Sun