Leader publisher gets a promotion

Three reporters at the News-Press and Leader have left within the past year, and 10-year company veteran Ryan Carter — city editor for three years — left the papers Friday to pursue other opportunities.

Other administrative staff positions have also been realigned in recent months.

Unlike the layoffs experienced at almost all regional papers this year, the staff changes at the News-Press and Leader are more cyclical in nature, and do not reflect the direct cuts at other media outlets, Goulet said.

But Tomaske’s departure will be felt beyond the walls of the second-floor newsroom on Brand Boulevard.

His reassignment to The Times’ headquarters in downtown Los Angeles also spells the end of his tenure on the board of directors for the Glendale Scholarship Endowment Fund, the Glendale Adventist Medical Center’s Healthcare Foundation and other community nonprofit groups.

“We’ll miss him very much,” said David Burghart, president of the healthcare foundation. “We felt he was a strong liaison to the community.”

It was that role as an “unelected official” that left the strongest impression on a first-time publisher who a little more than a year ago came in from his post as chief financial officer for Times Community News.

“I took the job with the understanding that I would be there for a long time, and I committed myself to it,” Tomaske said.

That essentially meant a crash course in public speaking and heavy involvement in a diverse community — a role that, combined with his newly found frontline management experience, has given him a new perspective on the corporate process.

“It all happened pretty quickly,” he said. “It’s an eye-opener.”

 JASON WELLS covers City Hall in Glendale. He may be reached at (818) 637-3235 or by e-mail at jason.wells@latimes.com.