Katz Resigns as Editor of O.C. Register

Orange County Register Editor Tonnie L. Katz has resigned from the Santa Ana-based newspaper to spend more time with her family, the company said.

Katz, 57, had just concluded a four-month personal leave of absence when she announced her resignation on Friday. She joined the Register in 1988 as assistant managing editor and became managing editor a year later. She was tapped for the paper’s top editorial position in 1992.

Katz is being replaced by Ken Brusic, 58, who was named senior vice president for content and strategy this year. Brusic has been with the Register since 1989. He became managing editor in 1992 and executive editor in 1997.

On Monday, Brusic said he does not expect any “radical changes from the direction we’ve had in the past five years or so.”

Katz could not be reached for comment.

While Katz was editor, the Register, which has a daily circulation of 300,000, won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism for its stories disclosing fraudulent and unethical practices in the fertility clinic at UC Irvine.