Former C-T editor Tomlin takes helm of Wilmington newspaper

My friend Robyn Tomlin, who was a colleague at the Asheville Citizen-Times, has just landed the position of executive editor of the Wilmington Star-News down on the coast. Here’s the story.

Robyn is one of those fire-in-the-belly journalists. She’s a Carolina graduate. She eats, breathes and lives journalism when she’s not mom to her two sons. Her husband, Kevin, who also worked at the Citizen-Times, is another solid journalist.

I wish Robyn all the best. I don’t know how the Wilmington newspaper has been faring of late, but my sense is that the local market is pretty strong, and that bodes well for the newspaper, which is owned by the New York Times company.

Down in Wilmington, Robyn will be working alongside yet another former Citizen-Times editor, Julie Martin. Julie, a journalist of the utmost integrity, is the managing editor there.

Good luck, you guys!

The Star-News newsroom will have a new leader next month when Tim Griggs leaves his post as executive editor on Aug. 22.

Executive editor Tim Griggs is leaving the ‘Star-News’ to accept a position with the ‘New York Times’. He will be replaced by Robyn Tomlin, executive editor of the ‘Star-Banner’ in Ocala, Fla.
Robyn Tomlin, executive editor of the Star-Banner in Ocala, Fla., will replace Griggs, who is taking a position in the strategic planning department of the New York Times. Tomlin’s first day is Aug. 25.,/p>
Tomlin is the first woman to be named executive editor at the Star-News. Julie Martin was the paper’s first woman managing editor when she was hired in 2006.
The Star-News and Star-Banner are both part of the New York Times Regional Media Group.

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Tomlin, 37, is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She previously worked under Martin’s leadership as a reporter and editor at the Asheville Citizen-Times, and was first hired to the New York Times Regional Media Group by Gruber when he was at the TimesDaily of Florence, Ala. She joined the staff there as managing editor and later became executive editor before moving to the Star-Banner.

“She has outstanding leadership skills,” Gruber said Wednesday. “She’s very much like Tim as far as being a visionist into the future as our industry continues to evolve with the online world.”

Tomlin, who grew up in Chapel Hill before attending college there, said she’s excited to return to the Tar Heel State.