Wednesday, Oct. 08, 2008

Newspaper veteran named editor of Sun-Star

Sun-Star

Hank Vander Veen, publisher of the Merced Sun-Star, announced the promotion of Mike Tharp to executive editor of the newspaper.

Tharp, 63, an Oklahoma native, had been city editor of the Sun-Star since June 2007. He replaces Joe Kieta, who left for the Utica, N.Y., Observer-Dispatch in July.

"Over the past several months I have been more than pleased with how the management team in our newsroom has stepped up since Joe's departure in June," Vander Veen said. "I am also very excited as we move on to our next chapter with Mike leading our newsroom. Mike brings a variety of experience to our newsroom and many ideas that will move us forward as a media company. I look forward to working with Mike as he joins the Operating Committee at the Sun-Star."

Tharp came to Merced after teaching journalism for seven years at California State University, Fullerton. He was West Coast correspondent for U.S. News & World Report in Los Angeles for 11 years before that and Tokyo bureau chief for the news magazine.

He was a reporter and bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal in Dallas, Tokyo and San Francisco, a correspondent for the New York Times in Tokyo and bureau chief of the Far Eastern Economic Review in Tokyo. In 1989-90 he was president of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.

He began his career as a copy boy at the Topeka Capital-Journal, where he later was environmental writer. He holds a bachelor's degree in English literature from Benedictine College, Atchison, Kan., and was a member of its NAIA national championship basketball team. After that, he studied on a Rotary Foundation Fellowship at the University of Wales, Cardiff. He also attended the University of Notre Dame Law School and the University of Kansas School of Journalism Graduate Program.

As a soldier in Vietnam in 1969-70, he wrote for a U.S. Army magazine and was awarded a Bronze Star. In 2007 he received an M.A. in communications from Cal State Fullerton. He also covered four wars for U.S. News in the 1990s and recently spent six weeks in Iraq as a rotating correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers.

"I'm grateful to Hank and the people at McClatchy corporate for giving me this chance," Tharp said. "This is a terrific time to be an editor because we can make sure our craft survives and prevails in whatever forms journalism will be practiced. I can't wait to get our newsroom team working together in print and online to produce the best possible news product for our audience and for McClatchy. Merced reminds me a lot of where I grew up -- you can go home again."

Tharp has a son, Michael Naomichi, 25, in Los Angeles, and a daughter, Dylann, 21, in Eugene, Ore.