WASHINGTON – Jay Ambrose, director of editorial policy for Scripps newspapers and former editor of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, has announced that he will retire effective at the end of the year.Ambrose, 60, will continue to write his twice-weekly column for Scripps Howard News Service.Ambrose’s career began 38 years ago as a reporter for a small daily in Kentucky and included a six-year stint as editor of the Rocky Mountain News during the height of the newspaper’s pitched circulation battle with The Denver Post.“In Scripps, we always have had a keeper of the lighthouse, an experienced and intellectual editor who made sure we all stayed true to the journalism values and principles we so cherish,” said Alan M. Horton, senior vice president of newspapers for Scripps. “As the company’s director of editorial policy and chief editorial writer, Jay has been the perfect lighthouse keeper because of his vast experience, the quality of his thinking and logic, his passion for principle and his ready wit and articulate style.”Ambrose has been director of editorial policy for Scripps newspapers since 1999. He was responsible for overseeing editorial policy for Scripps newspapers on national and international issues.Ambrose’s duties will be assumed by Peter Copeland, editor and general manager of Scripps Howard News Service and Scripps Media Center in Washington, D.C. “We are delighted Jay will continue to provide his popular column to hundreds of newspapers and Web sites via Scripps Howard News Service,” Copeland said. “He is a thoughtful man with strong opinions and a deep desire to make the world better.”Before being promoted to his current position, Ambrose had been chief editorial writer for the Scripps Howard News Service, a position he accepted after serving six years as editor of the Rocky. From 1983 to 1989, he was managing editor and then editor of the El Paso Herald-Post. Ambrose was the founding chairman of the literacy committee of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and has served on the ASNE’s board of directors. He has served as a Pulitzer Prize judge. A Kentucky native, he graduated from Transylvania College in Lexington, Ky., where he was editor of his college paper and literary magazine. He was one of 12 journalists chosen in 1975 as a fellow in the humanities at the University of Michigan. In 1987, he graduated from the Harvard Business School Program for Management Development. He received a lay diploma from the Virginia Theological Seminary this past year.Ambrose began his career at the Winchester Sun in Winchester, Ky., and, at age 23, was editor of a weekly newspaper, The Clay City Times, in Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountains. He was a reporter, Capitol bureau chief, assistant city editor and editorial page editor at The Knickerbocker News in Albany, N.Y. Ambrose has won the Walker Stone Award for editorial writing, as well as a number of other awards for opinion writing and for his activities in promoting literacy through newspaper programs. About ScrippsThe E.W. Scripps Company is a diverse media concern with interests in national lifestyle television networks, newspaper publishing, broadcast television, television retailing, interactive media and licensing and syndication. All of the company’s media businesses provide content and advertising services via the Internet.Scripps is organized into the following operating divisions. Scripps Networks, which includes the company’s growing portfolio of popular lifestyle television networks. Scripps Networks brands include Home & Garden Television, Food Network, DIY Network, Fine Living and Great American Country (GAC). Scripps Networks Web sites include FoodNetwork.com, HGTV.com, DIYnetwork.com, fineliving.com and gactv.com. Scripps Networks programming can be seen in 86 countries.Scripps Newspapers, including daily and community newspapers in 19 markets and the Washington-based Scripps Media Center, home to the Scripps Howard News Service. Scripps newspapers include the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, the Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel and the Ventura County (Calif.) Star. Scripps Television Station Group, including six ABC-affiliated stations, three NBC affiliates and one independent. Scripps operates broadcast television stations in Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Phoenix, Tampa, Baltimore, Kansas City, Mo., West Palm Beach, Fla., Tulsa, Okla., and Lawrence, Kan.Shop At Home Network, the company’s television retailing subsidiary, which markets a growing range of consumer goods directly to television viewers and visitors to the Shop At Home Web site, shopathometv.com. Shop At Home reaches about 53 million full-time equivalent U.S. households, including 5 million households via five Scripps-owned Shop At Home affiliated television stations.United Media, a leading licensing and syndication company. United Media is the worldwide licensing and syndication home of Peanuts, Dilbert and about 150 other features and characters.