Houston Chronicle's MeMo Kyrie O'Connor named interim editor of the San Antonio Express-News

San Antonio Express-News editor Bob Rivard resigned Tuesday and today Hearst, the owner of f the San Antonio Express-News and the Houston Chronicle, announces senior editor Kyrie O'Connor (aka MeMo on the blogs) is taking over in SA...at least on an interim basis:

Kyrie O'Connor, senior editor of the Hearst-owned Houston Chronicle, has been named interim editor of the San Antonio Express-News. Jamie Stockwell, metro editor of the Express-News, has been promoted to managing editor. The announcement was made by Mark Aldam, president of Hearst Newspapers, the parent company of the San Antonio Express-News, and Tom Stephenson, the newspaper’s publisher. The appointments follow the resignation of Robert Rivard, editor and executive vice president of the newspaper.

O’Connor joined the Houston Chronicle in 2003 as deputy managing editor/features, and was later senior editor/features and Texas features editor. At the Chronicle, she wrote a daily memo to her staff about trends in popular culture and discoveries she made about life in Houston. O’Connor eventually turned the memo into “MeMo,” one of the Chronicle's first blogs and, in 2005, won an EPpy award from Editor & Publisher for the effort. She is a regular panelist on NPR's Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me. In 1989, O’Connor joined The Hartford Courant as a copy editor, soon moving into editor roles in the features department and eventually assistant managing editor. There, she led the creation and redesign of many of the newspaper's feature sections. O’Connor began her journalism career at Connecticut’s Bristol Press and later covered the state legislature for a small news service.

Stockwell came to the Express-News in 2007 as an assistant city editor, becoming one of two in charge of the crime team. She was promoted to deputy metro editor in 2008 and metro editor a year later. An award-winning journalist, she began her career at the Washington Post, where for eight years she wrote mostly about criminal justice.

“We are fortunate to have two very talented journalist to assume the leadership of our newsroom in San Antonio,” Aldam said. “Both Kyrie and Jamie have distinguished themselves as award-winning journalists as well as leaders of multi-media innovation. I have high confidence in both of these great news professionals.”

“Bob has had a distinguished career at the Express-News and I have enjoyed working alongside of him for the past 14 years,” Stephenson said. “His passion for news and for the community is second to none, and I wish him nothing but the best as he enters the next chapter of his life.”

“After 35 years as a newspaperman, I have decided to retire as editor and executive vice president-news of the Express-News,” Rivard said. “I look forward to pursuing new opportunities in a new field. As you know, I thought about leaving last year for a position in academia, but ended up staying. This time it’s the right time. It’s been a great honor and experience to hold this position since 1997, but the time has come for new leadership with new energy and new ideas.”

O’Connor graduated cum laude from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Stockwell is a 1999 journalism graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.