CINCINNATI – Jack McElroy, a veteran newsroom leader who helped guide the Rocky Mountain News in Denver to its first Pulitzer Prize, has been named editor of The Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel, effective Nov. 1.McElroy, 48, succeeds Harry Moskos, who will retire Oct. 31. Moskos, who has reached the mandatory retirement age established by Scripps for its senior managers, has been editor of the News-Sentinel since 1984. The Rocky Mountain News and the News-Sentinel are owned and operated by The E. W. Scripps Company.“We looked at some of the company’s best talent, in an extensive process,” said Alan M. Horton, senior vice president of newspapers for Scripps. “We think we’ve found the perfect editor to lead the News-Sentinel newsroom. Jack has the right experience, ideas and love of great community journalism to carry the newspaper forward.”Bruce Hartmann, president and publisher of the News-Sentinel, said, “Jack’s leadership style will compliment our newsroom team. His commitment to journalistic excellence is undeniable. Having an editor who was on a team that won a Pulitzer Prize will be an extreme credit, not only to the News-Sentinel, but to all of our readers throughout East Tennessee.”Moskos praised McElroy, noting that he hired him as a reporter at The Albuquerque Tribune, another Scripps newspaper. “There is no doubt that the News-Sentinel’s news-gathering operation will be in very capable hands under Jack’s direction,” Moskos said.As managing editor of the Rocky Mountain News, McElroy helped lead the newspaper’s coverage of the 1998 Columbine High School shooting tragedy in suburban Denver. The Rocky’s Columbine coverage led to a Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography and a host of other honors, including National Headliners awards for spot news reporting and awards for deadline reporting and spot news photography from the Society of Professional Journalists.McElroy began his newspaper career in 1976 as a reporter for the Douglas (Ariz.) Daily Dispatch, Arizona’s smallest daily paper. A year later, he joined Scripps at The Albuquerque Tribune as an investigative reporter and news writer. While in Albuquerque, he served on the Tribune’s city desk as an assistant city editor and then as city editor. He was promoted to assistant managing editor before serving three years as managing editor. He also launched the Electronic Trib, a low-budget online edition that became a Scripps prototype before the advent of the Internet.In 1991, McElroy moved to Denver to become special projects editor for the Rocky Mountain News. At the Rocky he served as an assistant managing editor, deputy managing editor and then managing editor. In 1999, he was named general manager of the combined Internet operations of the Rocky and its sister Scripps newspaper in Suburban Denver, Boulder’s Daily Camera.McElroy returned to the Rocky’s newsroom as associate managing editor in January 2001 after the Rocky and The Denver Post, owned by MediaNews Group Inc., entered into a joint operating agreement. New media operations were divided between the agency that was created to publish the Rocky and the Post and the independent newsrooms of the two newspapers. As associate managing editor of the Rocky, McElroy is responsible for special projects, the Internet, the newspaper’s library and conversion to a new pagination system.McElroy has a master’s degree in management from the University of New Mexico and a bachelor’s degree in English and journalism from the University of Arizona.The E.W. Scripps Company is a diverse media concern with interests in newspaper publishing, broadcast television, national television networks and interactive media. Scripps operates 21 daily newspapers, 10 broadcast TV stations and three cable television networks, with plans to launch a fourth.Scripps national television network brands include Home & Garden Television, Food Network, Do It Yourself and Fine Living, due to launch in early 2002.The company also operates Scripps Howard News Service, United Media, the worldwide licensing and syndication home of PEANUTS and DILBERT, and 31 Web sites, including hgtv.com, foodtv.com, diynet.com and comics.com.