In the wake of Tony Ronzio’s abrupt departure last week as editor/publisher of the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, parent company MaineToday Media has named Bill Thompson, editorial page director for the company’s daily papers, as the new editor of both papers.

The new publisher? That post appears to be vacant.

This is actually Thompson second try at being editor of the Augusta and Waterville papers. A longtime friend and employee of MaineToday’s ousted CEO Richard Connor, Thompson was hired out of Texas in 2009 to write editorials. But within a few weeks, he was promoted to editor of the KJ and Sentinel, a job that exposed his lack of knowledge of Maine, which proved to be a serious impediment. A short time later, his title was upgraded to editor/publisher, but his responsibilities were reduced to running just the Sentinel. Soon after that, he was kicked back upstairs to write editorials again, leaving Ronzio in charge of both papers. After the latest round of staff reductions at MaineToday, he was the sole remaining editorial writer, so it’s not clear whether he’ll continue to do his old job while trying to run two papers he couldn’t quite manage the first time around.

The Sentinel and KJ quietly acknowledged the change in command this week by removing Ronzio’s name from their mastheads and replacing it with Thompson’s. But somebody must have forgotten to tell the Portland Press Herald the news, because Ronzio is still listed as part of the editorial board as of Nov. 22, while Thompson’s title remains editorial page director on the Portland paper’s masthead.

Al Diamon can be emailed at aldiamon@herniahill.net.

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