Another editor leaving Michigan newspaper

Mike Lloyd, editor of the Grand Rapids Press, will join the Booth Newspaper editors rush out of the newspaper by retiring July 1.

The 63-year-old Lloyd joins Ann Arbor News Ed Petykiewicz, 57, who announced his retirement in late March, just before we learned the Ann Arbor News would close, publishing its last edition on July 23. Also leaving are John Foren, 47, who became Flint Journal editor on Jan. 13, 2009, and Paul Chaffee, 61, publisher/editor of The Saginaw News. Foren is leaving June 1; Chaffee is staying on as a consultant for a few more months.

The Bay City Times editor, John Hiner, 48, steps into an executive editor role, overseeing the Bay City, Saginaw and Flint newspapers that will begin printing morning newspapers three days a week starting in June. (A community editor was named at each newspaper.)

Lloyd hired everyone

But back to Lloyd, who has spent 31 years at the Booth Newspaper, hiring everyone who has a byline according to an article posted on mlive.com. That includes hiring Bob Becker, the sports editor who recently retired and whose mug was shown today by a Grand Rapids TV station announcing Lloyd's retirement.

The article says Lloyd's personal journalistic high are:

• His series of interviews with the late President Gerald R. Ford,
• A book he collaborated on for the 1984 Detroit Tigers World Series Championship and
• The Press' 100th anniversary edition in 1992, with sections covering the news of each decade in the community.

Became editor at 33

The University of Missouri journalism grad, now 63, became editor at 33. That made him among the youngest to be editor of a newspaper with a circulation over 100,000, according to the article on mlive.

The article says that Lloyd said his decision to retire was influenced by the changing business and his desire to respond to other interesting opportunities.

The rest of Booth

I probably should mention that Foren replaced Tony Dearing, who in December was named special projects content coordinator for Advance Internet and now is heading up the content side of AnnArbor.com

No word on Rebecca Pierce, editor of the Kalamazo Gazette, or Eileen Lehnert, editor of the Jackson Citizen Patriot, or Paul Keep, who is publisher and editor of the Muskegon Chronicle. (In fact, Keep posted a column this week about the "rumors of our demise."