Ryan Blethen named Times editorial-page editor

In a widely expected move, Ryan Blethen has been named editorial-page editor of The Seattle Times.

Blethen, 36, had been associate editorial-page editor at the paper, and his promotion marks the ascendancy of a fifth generation of the family into a position left vacant by the retirement of longtime editorial-page editor James F. Vesely. Blethen assumes his new position immediately.

As editorial-page editor, he will oversee the editorial staff and shape the opinion voice of The Times. He also will continue to serve as a columnist and as associate publisher of The Seattle Times with oversight of the company's Washington Affiliate Newspapers, the Yakima Herald-Republic, The Walla Walla Union Bulletin and the Issaquah Press.

He has worked as a reporter or editor at newspapers in Yakima and Spokane and Portland, Maine.

Speaking Tuesday at his desk at the paper, amid stacks of notes and books, and twirling an old-fashioned metal pica pole, Blethen could be any other journalist at the paper but for the family photograph in his office.

The Blethens have owned the paper since 1896, and he is publisher Frank Blethen's son. "My generation of the Blethen family is extremely proud of the emergence of the fifth generation of family stewardship," Frank Blethen said in a press release issued by the company.

The job, Ryan Blethen said, is one he has always wanted. "I'm very excited. Since I got into journalism it's the one job I really wanted to have; it's where I have always wanted to end up," Blethen said. "And it is kind of fitting to have a Blethen actually run the editorial board."

As editorial-page editor, Blethen said, he hopes to bring more editorial-board meetings online to share with Web audiences. And he is proud to help bring the paper into another era, even through economic times that have shuttered other print publications, including recently the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

"I look at it as a real privilege. It's an exciting business, and an important business," he said of newspapering.

While in some newspaper families interest falls off in the later generations, for Blethen, journalism is his career of choice. "If we didn't have the paper, I'd have to go somewhere else. I want to be a journalist," he said.

"I'm committed to it, and in my generation there are five or six of us all working at the paper," he added. "All of us are hanging in. It should reassure people that we are trying. There are no guarantees, but I think we'll get through it."

Several community leaders in Seattle took reassurance from Blethen's appointment. "He is very well-prepared for this," said George Duff, interim president of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. "It is a tribute to them that over the years they have been able to bring family members into responsible positions, and it is very encouraging to the community to see this commitment."

Blethen is a graduate of Washington State University and a resident of Seattle. He likes to run and to watch movies for fun.

"And read newspapers," he said.

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com