Hearst Connecticut Media Group replaces VP with Canadian journalist

Matt DeRienzo, vice president of news and digital content at Hearst Connecticut Media Group has been replaced by a Canadian journalist, according to reports. DeRienzo held the position of VP since Oct. 2018.

He was responsible for overseeing the group’s eight daily and 13 weekly newspapers. The properties include the New Haven Register, Connecticut Post and newspapers in Greenwich, Danbury, Meriden, Middletown, Norwalk and Stamford.

Mike DeLuca, group publisher and president of Hearst Connecticut Media Group, informed employees in an email posted on a blog by Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University. He stated that DeRienzo will be leaving “to pursue other opportunities.”

DeLuca also announced in his email that Wendy Metcalfe will be vice president of content and editor in chief and “will be charged with the responsibility of upgrading the quality of our enterprise reporting across all of our newsrooms while working with our consumer marketing teams to deepen the engagement we have with our readers.”

Metcalfe announced Oct. 17 on Twitter that after three years working at Brunswick News, she “decided to accept a new career opportunity.”

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to lead such talented newsrooms & quality journalism in the USA, having had the privilege to do the same in Canada & the UK,” she wrote.

DeLuca cited Metcalfe’s experience as an executive at national, regional and local media companies. She was assistant managing editor at the Toronto Star and editor-in-chief of the Toronto Sun, he said.