Announcing his intent to retire as ed­itor and publisher of the Vineyard Gazette after more than 27 years at the newspaper, Richard Reston this week also named his successor.

Beginning in the middle of March, John W. Walter Jr., a former executive editor of the Atlanta Journal-Consti­tution, will arrive on the Island and take over the leadership role of the Gazette.

Mr. Walter, 56, was named editor and publisher of the Gazette and its other publications, Martha’s Vineyard Mag­azine and the Best Read Guide, after a search process that began early last fall.

For the Vineyard Gazette, the change to a new production computer system this spring has been as profound as the transition, two decades ago, from hot metal type to offset printing.

The Vineyard Gazette today announced new publishers for the newspaper in changes that take effect immediately.

Richard Reston, presently editor in chief of the newspaper, assumes The position and added responsibilities of editor and publisher of the Vineyard Gazette.

Mary Jo Reston, now the newspaper’s general manager, moves up to the role of publisher and general manager, with full responsibility for the financial affairs of the Gazette.

Just in time for Christmas shopping, a letter arrived this week from the Harris Corporation, makers of the typesetting equipment we use at the Gazette to produce the words you’re reading now.

An introductory note explained that the Composition and Controls Division at Harris has cut prices on a number of spare parts -- “items which exceed our forecasted requirements.” We think that means nobody’s buying them.

The Vineyard Gazette this week completed its first major building expansion and renovation at South Summer street and Davis Lane in Edgartown, the newspaper’s home since early 1939. This Sunday, as the newspaper enters its 139th year of publishing without missing a single issue, the Gazette will open its doors to all the Vineyard community from noon to 5 p.m. for a house warming and public inspection.

Almost in time for last week’s printing deadlines, the Vineyard Gazette dragged its typesetting technology, kicking and scratching, into the age of high-speed computers. Except for a few pieces of the almanac listings, all the news in the April 16 edition was typeset on a microprocessor-based system manufac­tured by the Harris Corporation.

This morning’s Gazette is the first printed on our new Goss Community offset press. It’s also the first to be printed on the Island in the familiar South Summer street shop since January 31, when we abandoned the hot metal-letterpress printing process in use at the Gazette for half a century. Since then the paper has been printed for us by commercial printers in Arlington.

From 1846 when the Vineyard Gazette was founded by Edgar Marchant until 1920 the paper was printed from movable types, first invented in China in some unestablished background of the past, and invented independently by Gutenberg in Europe in the mid-15th Century.

James and Sally Fulton Reston, publishers of the Gazette, have announced plans to replace the paper’s traditional hot metal letterpress printing machinery with modern photocomposition equipment and a web offset press. Next Friday’s Gazette will be typeset and printed by the new method.

Transfer of ownership of the Vineyard Gazette to Mr. and Mrs. James Reston—James and Sally Reston, as their names will appear at the masthead of the paper—was completed on Saturday, following the announcement of the change made on March 22. Mr. Reston is associate editor of the New York Times and Mrs. Reston is on the staff of that newspaper.