Sun-Times digital editor logs off

Marcus Gilmer

Marcus Gilmer

After little more than a year as digital editor of the Sun-Times, Marcus Gilmer is leaving to become newsroom social media manager for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Gilmer, 34, previously was editor-in-chief of Chicagoist and associate editor of The A.V. Club, the pop culture sister publication of The Onion. He joined the Sun-Times in October 2012 from Chicago Public Media, where he wrote a daily news blog for wbez.org.

“It’s very bittersweet because I have enjoyed immensely working with [Sun-Times editors] Jim [Kirk] and Craig [Newman] on some of the things we’ve done, and I think we’ve made a lot of progress,” Gilmer told me Monday. “But from a personal standpoint, this was an opportunity that was hard to pass up.”

In his newly created position, which starts Dec. 16, Gilmer will focus on the Chronicle’s social media policy and work closely with the publication’s reporters and editors on strategy and usage. “I’ll be kind of a liaison between my bosses and the newsroom,” he said.