The Sacramento Bee executive editor and senior vice president Rick Rodriguez resigned abruptly Thursday, ending his 28-year career as an employee with The McClatchy Co.

Rodriguez resigned to “pursue other opportunities,” according to a Bee news release.

Managing editor Joyce Terhaar will fill Rodriguez’s role until a successor is named.

Starting early next year, Rodriguez will begin working with McClatchy’s vice president for news Howard Weaver as a consultant on journalism issues, providing analysis, personnel advice and other assistance, the news release states.

Steven Weiss, vice president of marketing and public affairs for the Bee, said Rodriguez spoke to the newsroom and to the Bee’s management team this afternoon, and left shortly afterwards.

Reached at his home this afternoon, Rodriguez, 53, declined to elaborate. He said he plans to stay in Sacramento.

“We just remodeled our home,” he said. “I’ve got a fondness for Sacramento. …I’ve been part of this community for quite a while now.”

Rodriguez reportedly gave a heartfelt goodbye to the newsroom staff with Sacramento Bee publisher and president Janis Heaphy at his side.

“I’ve had the experience of a lifetime working at The Bee and am grateful to the passionate journalists who have dedicated themselves to this paper and to working with me. I am immensely proud of what we have accomplished together and the reputation that we have built for this fine paper,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

Rodriguez has not been at The Bee this week. Reporters and other newsroom employees were told he was away on business.

In the afternoon newsroom meeting, Heaphy told employees that Rodriguez’s resignation was not about resources or staffing, but a disagreement about “strategic vision.”

“Rick and I differ over my vision for the long-term future direction of The Bee, so we have mutually agreed to part ways,” Heaphy said in a statement. “We have both agreed to not publicly discuss these differences, though they are not based on differences over resources or our continuing aspirations for excellent journalism. We have undertaken this in good faith and mutual respect. I have immense respect for Rick and wish him all the very best.”

Heaphy plans to name a replacement for Rodriguez “shortly.”

“Rick served the Bee and our community with pride, determination and compassion,” Heaphy said in the release. “Under his leadership, The Bee became a nationally recognized newspaper for investigative journalism and California politics.”

In Rodriguez’s nine years as executive editor, The Bee won virtually every major journalism award, culminating in the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography earlier this year. Rodriguez served as president of The American Society of Newspaper Editors in 2005 and was named one of America’s 100 most influential Hispanics by Hispanics Business Magazine in 2006.

Rodriguez overhauled the paper’s regional coverage, opened news offices in Roseville, Folsom and Elk Grove, and built an influential Capitol bureau to serve as the source of record for California politics.

A graduate of Stanford University, Rodriguez began his career with McClatchy at The Fresno Bee in 1979 and moved to The Sacramento Bee in 1982 as a political reporter and then editorial writer. He was named managing editor in 1993 and promoted to executive editor in 1998

“Rick’s leadership has given The Bee a solid foundation,” Heaphy said. “I am confident that his successor will build upon that legacy.”

Reporters have speculated that Rodriguez was offered a severance agreement that stipulated he is not to talk about specifics relating to his resignation.

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