Breaking: Phil Fernandez rumored to be next editor of the Asheville Citizen-Times

Six weeks after the Citizen-Times dismissed Executive Editor Susan Ihne, rumors are swirling that Managing Editor Phil Fernandez has been named as her replacement.

The newspaper has never publicly acknowledged that Ihne was let go. We’ll see how they handle the hiring of Fernandez as top editor. Right now I don’t have Fernandez’s appointment confirmed, but I’m close. Word was that Fernandez was at the Gannett mothership in Virginia interviewing for the post earlier this week.

Fernandez has been at the Citizen-Times for about five years. He’s a Florida guy who loves baseball. When it comes to journalism, he’s all about the Web.

Here’s the Gannett announcement about him coming to Asheville:

Phil Fernandez, an editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for the past four years, has been named managing editor of the Asheville Citizen-Times. He replaces Julie Martin, who left the newspaper in August for family reasons.

Fernandez joined the Atlanta newspaper in 1999 after 20 years in journalism at newspapers in Indiana and Florida.

In Atlanta, he held a variety of roles, including editor of its two weekly technology sections. He also headed two county bureaus.

From 1990 to 1999, he worked at The Orlando Sentinel. Among his jobs was county editor in charge of local news operations in Osceola County. He developed and launched several sections aimed at Hispanic readers and suburban readers.

Fernandez worked as a customer service clerk for the News-Press at Fort Myers and the Journal and Courier at Lafayette, Ind., before earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Purdue University. He later wrote for both newspapers and served as assistant metro editor in Fort Myers.