CINCINNATI, Ohio – Colleen C. Conant, executive editor of the Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera, today assumed publisher and chief executive officer duties, as well.She succeeds Harold Higgins, president and publisher of the Daily Camera for six years, who at the end of the month will return to an executive position at Knight Ridder, former owner of the Camera. His Knight Ridder assignment will be announced at a later date.The Daily Camera was acquired by The E.W. Scripps Company from Knight Ridder in August 1997.”Colleen is one of our most respected and experienced editors,” said Alan M. Horton, Scripps senior vice president of newspapers. “We are confident that her commitment to journalistic excellence, combined with her savvy business acumen, will continue to be a great asset to the Daily Camera and Boulder.”Horton credited Higgins with “admirably fulfilling his responsibility to see the Camera through its transition from Knight Ridder ownership to Scripps. Circulation is climbing, the paper is better than ever and the Camera is serving its advertisers very well.”Conant, 50, moved to the Camera in August 1997 as executive editor from Naples, Fla., where she had been editor of the Naples Daily News, another Scripps newspaper.She joined Scripps in 1970 after graduating from Oklahoma City University in Oklahoma City, Okla. From 1970 to 1985 she was with The Stuart News in Stuart, Fla., first as a reporter, then from 1973 to 1978 as city editor and finally as managing editor. During her tenure, the newspaper grew from weekly to daily publication. For six years prior to Naples, Conant was managing editor of one of the largest Scripps newspapers, The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn. In that position she managed a diverse staff during a period of significant improvements in the editorial product. In Boulder, she presided over the recent redesign of the Daily Camera, which grew from three to four daily news sections. Becoming active in the Boulder community, she is a member of the board of directors of the Colorado Music Festival and the advisory board for the University of Colorado Music Series. She also is a member of the Boulder Roadrunners. While in Florida, she was active in community efforts involving education and economic development. She served as chair of the Collier County Education Foundation and the Economic Foundations Committee of the Economic Development Council. Conant is a trustee of the Scripps Howard Foundation and is active with the American Society of Newspaper Editors. A two-time Pulitzer prize juror, Conant has led editing seminars for the American Press Institute and a number of nationally known photo editing workshops. She and her husband, Terry, have two sons, Andrew, 23, and David, 17. Higgins, 48, has been publisher of the Daily Camera since July 1992. Before coming to Boulder, he was publisher of Knight Ridder’s Aberdeen (S.D.) American News. A 1972 graduate of South Dakota State University, he began his newspaper career as an obituary writer, then reporter, for the Rapid City (S.D.) Journal. He went on to work for the Associated Press in Minneapolis and spent 10 years in St. Paul, Minn., working for Knight Ridder newspapers.The E.W. Scripps Company operates 20 daily newspapers; nine network-affiliated television stations; two TV networks, Home & Garden Television and the Food Network; a TV programmer, Cinetel Productions; and United Media, a worldwide syndicator and licensor of news features and comics.