Mac Tully leaves Kansas City Star

Mac Tully, publisher of the Kansas City Star since 2004, is leaving to take a job with Denver-based MediaNews Group, which owns and runs 57 daily newspapers in 12 states.

Mark Zieman, editor of The Star since 1997, was named interim publisher.

Bob Weil, vice president of operations for the Star’s owner, McClatchy Co., said the newspaper chain had started a search for a new publisher. Zieman is among those being considered, Weil said.

Tully, whose newspaper career began in the Star’s advertising department in 1978, became publisher of the newspaper Jan. 1, 2005. Before that he was a top executive with Knight Ridder Inc., then the owner of the Star.

Before that, he served for three and a half years as president and publisher of the Bradenton Herald in Florida. He was publisher of the Arlington Star-Telegram in Texas, an edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, before moving to Florida.

Tully announced his impending departure at a gathering of Star employees shortly after 11 this morning. He praised McClatchy as one of the best newspaper companies in the country. Tully said he was leaving because MediaNews had offered him an opportunity “too difficult to say no to.”