Top editors leave McClatchy newspaper in South Carolina

Editor and Publisher:

The Beaufort Gazette is preparing for the departure of three of its top editors.

Opinion page editor Jim Cato will retire next month after working in leadership roles at the newspaper for 28 years. The 63-year-old Cato joined the Gazette as its top editor in 1980. He later served as publisher and has been opinion page editor since 2005. His final column will appear Sept. 7.

Executive editor Steve Blust is leaving the post he's held since December 2004 on Nov. 7, to move closer to his adult children in California. Managing editor Chris Passante is moving to the Central Penn Business Journal in Harrisburg, Pa.

Sports editor Jeff Kidd will assume a newly created editor position Oct. 1. With the newspaper since 1992, Kidd will oversee the newspaper's budgeting and other operations.