The CEO and president of American Community Newspapers – the parent company of Leesburg Today – resigned May 7.

The financially troubled Texas-based company announced in a corporate press release that Gene M. Carr was leaving the company, effective immediately. No other details regarding Carr’s departure were provided. Carr headed the newspaper chain since 2002.

American Community Newspapers is one of the largest community newspaper publishers in the nation, reaching 1.4 million households in suburban areas. It operates 86 newspapers and 14 niche publications in four states – Virginia, Ohio, Texas and Minnesota.

In addition to Leesburg Today and its sister publication Ashburn Today, ACN also locally operates Loudoun Magazine, Loudoun Business, Middleburg Life, The Sun Gazette newspaper chain (Fairfax and Arlington) and Northern Virginia Parent Life Magazine.

Norman K. Styer, publisher and editor in chief of Leesburg Today, declined to comment, other than stating in an e-mail that he saw “no impact” on ACN’s local operations in Loudoun. He referred other inquiries to ACN corporate offices.

Dick Franks will serve as interim CEO of ACN, according to the company, and Frank Shepherd will be tasked with focusing on ACN’s Virginia newspaper clusters.

In an e-mail obtained by the Times-Mirror addressed to “friends and colleagues,” Carr wrote he had “logged well over one million air miles” on the job, and said it was time to “take a short break, re-charge” and travel with his wife. He noted he had been with ACN for nearly nine years “and four different ownership groups.”

Under Carr’s tenure, ACN weathered a series of industry and fiscal challenges, including declining revenue and advertising sales, lower circulation, increased online and offline competition, a growing corporate debt and the nationwide economic downturn.

This led to ACN filing for Chapter 11 protection in bankruptcy court in Delaware in April 2009. Shortly thereafter, a group of creditors purchased ACN for $32 million. ACN is a publicly traded company on the OTC market (ACNIQ).