Robert W. Burdick, Editor of the Daily News, Resigns

The editor of the Daily News of Los Angeles has resigned, it was announced Friday. He is the second top-ranking official to leave the Woodland Hills-based newspaper in two months.

Robert W. Burdick, 46, who has been with the paper for 10 years, the last seven as editor, will leave to become managing editor of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. His resignation follows last month’s announcement that James Lacher was leaving his post as executive vice president to take a position elsewhere in the empire of Daily News owner and financier Jack Kent Cooke, who earlier this year put the Daily News up for sale.

Burdick will remain at the paper for a short period, Daily News spokeswoman Lynne T. Jewell said, adding that the paper has begun a search for his replacement. The search will initially be focused in-house, although outside candidates might also be considered, she said.

Lacher was replaced by Larry T. Beasley, who took over the positions of president and chief executive. Beasley, a longtime newspaper executive, is known for turning around money-losing newspapers.

In May, Cooke hired the New York investment banking firm Lazard Freres & Co. to find a buyer for the Daily News. Cooke could not be reached for comment Friday.

Jewell said Burdick’s departure is not connected with any efforts by Cooke to sell the paper.

Cooke also owns the Washington Redskins football team, the Chrysler Building in New York, cable TV holdings and a horse-breeding farm in Kentucky.