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Joel Rawson, top ProJo editor, is retiring

<P><IMG src="//www.editteach.org/special/editingthefuture/photogallery/mugs/rawson.jpg"></P> <P><A href="//www.projo.com/words/tip211.htm">Joel P. Rawson</A>, the executive editor of the Providence Journal, has told fellow employees that he is retiring, effective April 29.</P> <P>Rawson's career at the ProJo bridges the&nbsp;headier days of fuller staffing and greater journalistic ambition in the '70s and '80s to <A href="//thephoenix.com/article_ektid52470.aspx">the current uncertainty and anxiety</A> facing the newspaper industry. He is known as a consummate journalist who played an important role in elevating the national reputation of Rhode Island's dominant daily.</P> <P>While the ProJo is a&nbsp;thinner imitation of its former self, the paper, in part through multiple buyouts,&nbsp;has avoided the kind of sharp layoffs that have taken place at many papers. And the ProJo still plays a vital role in unearthing <A href="//www.projo.com/news/content/Martineau_Pleads_10-10-07_JD7E4AT.354d06b.html">corruption</A> and offering the most detailed coverage of government in Rhode Island.</P> <P>There is no clear word on succession, although new media czar <A href="//www.providencephoenix.com/features/other_stories/documents/04530508.asp">Tom Heslin</A> would almost certainly be on any short list.</P> <P>Rawson communicated his retirement, long speculated upon by ProJo types, in conversations with a few people in the newsroom today. The word quickly spread throughout the&nbsp;staff.&nbsp;(Rawson did not immediately return a voice mail left on his phone line.)</P> <P>I'll post more on this tomorrow, but I wanted to get the news out. [UPDATE: I'll be writing about Rawson's retirement for this week's Phoenix, so I'm going to hold off on additional blogging on the subject.]</P>

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