Molly Evans, general manager of the Santa Cruz Sentinel for the past year, has been promoted to publisher, replacing Dave Regan. Regan, 65, is retiring after 23 years with the 27,000-circulation daily. Evans, 48, came to the Sentinel after seven years as advertising director at the Cape Cod Times in Massachusetts, also an Ottaway paper. Ottaway is the community newspaper chain owned by Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. Evans says she will reveal “several exciting initiatives” in the coming months, but didn’t want to elaborate for fear of tipping the competition. As she takes the reins of the paper, Evans is also battling breast cancer. She is scheduled to have surgery and will be out for several weeks. But she said the new enterprises planned are far enough along as to not be hindered by her absence.