LEWISTON — Judy Meyer, who has worked for the Sun Journal for 35 years and as its executive editor for nearly 10 years, is stepping down.

Judy Meyer Submitted photo

Friday will be the last day for Meyer, who started in journalism after answering a Sun Journal ad for a freelance writer for the Buckfield area. She most recently served as executive editor for the Sun Journal, the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel.

In her time at the Sun Journal, Meyer has championed open records and open government in the state, earning accolades for that work. She serves on the Right to Know Committee to the Legislature, the New England Newspaper & Press Association and the New England First Amendment Coalition.

She was named Maine’s Journalist of the Year in 2003, and was honored with the Judith Vance Weld Brown Spirit of Journalism Award in 2018 from the New England Newspaper & Press Association and was named to the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame in 2022.

In her tenure at the Sun Journal she worked as a reporter, Oxford County bureau chief, editorial page editor and managing editor before being named executive editor, the first woman to hold the job in the newspaper’s history. As executive editor, she also supervised the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel.