Strib editorial page editor steps down

After 14 years at the helm of the Star Tribune's editorial page, Susan Albright is leaving the newspaper next month. The change was announced in a memo from publisher Chris Harte sent out to Strib staffers this afternoon. Managing editor Scott Gillespie will take over the helm of the editorial page on an interim basis.

Harte cited competing philosophies for the future of the opinion pages as part of the reason for Albright's departure. "We have a professional disagreement about the role of the editorial pages and how they should be edited," he writes in the memo. "The main shift I want to see is toward even more locally focused editorial pages."

In other words: no more unpleasantly hostile verbiage about the Bush administration's catastrophic war in Iraq and more reasoned argument about the Hopkins School District's curriculum. The move also undoubtedly means that the newspaper's historically left-leaning editorial voice will drift rightward in the coming months.