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Foley cited her husband’s ongoing battle with cancer as a primary reason for the resignation, which she announced to staff in an e-mail Monday. She had served as editor of the paper for four years.
Foley, 56, said in the e-mail that she is working on a book project, has a class she wants to teach and wants to spend more time with her two daughters and her ill husband.
She called being editor of the 156-year-old State Journal her “dream job.”
State Journal publisher Bill Johnston said that a national search would be conducted and he hoped to name her replacement within a couple months.
“She made major contributions here in difficult times and is an outstanding journalist and we will miss her a lot,” Johnston said.
Gov. Jim Doyle, a distant relative of Foley’s, praised her leadership during tough economic times for the newspaper industry.
“She took on challenges that were unprecedented in the newspaper business,” Doyle said. “The State Journal is living through it, so I think she deserves some credit.”
Foley, who grew up in Milwaukee, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and got her start as an intern at the Daily News in West Bend. Before taking the editor position, she worked at five major metropolitan newspapers, including the Star Tribune of Minneapolis and the Kansas City Star. For six years, she was managing editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia’s second-largest daily.
She left that job to work for the State Journal.
Foley said in a story posted on the State Journal Web site that she waited to make her announcement until after the newsroom made it through a reorganization and buyout of several longtime staffers and her husband’s cancer was declared to be in remission.
Foley was known for taking risks, including pushing for a greater emphasis on local news and starting a new feature that allowed readers to vote for what story they’d like to see on the front page. The paper was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for its series of editorials last year against the governor’s expansive veto powers.
“I will work in the next year to get a deeper perspective on our industry and on my contribution to the community,” Foley said in her e-mail. “I am optimistic about the future of journalism and Capital Newspapers. We may be smaller but no one will ever be able to replace the excellent journalism that you produce every day.”
Foley’s resignation comes after the newspaper eliminated the managing editor position as part of what Johnston said was a restructuring.
Tim Kelley, the former managing editor who reported to Foley, left that job on Friday to become the digital media manager for the online division of Capital Newspapers Inc., which is jointly owned by Lee Enterprises Inc. and The Capital Times Co.
Capital Newspapers publishes both the State Journal and the Cap Times. The Cap Times earlier this year switched to an online-only newspaper that publishes twice-weekly tabloid inserts distributed in the State Journal and in news racks for free.
The State Journal’s circulation is about 101,000 daily and 139,000 on Sunday.
