"After 43 years and a career of enormous satisfaction, I think it's time to scale back and step aside," he told the Globe on Wednesday. "I've accomplished everything I've ever dreamed of accomplishing. I'm just ready to step aside."
Ryan orginally announced his retirement on Tuesday during an appearance on ESPN's Bill Simmons' podcast, The B.S. Report.
"I really and truly believe that my time has come and gone, that the dynamics of the business, of what it takes to be involved in the business with all the tweeting and the blogging and that stuff, with an audience with a different taste … I'm not comfortable — it's not me any more," he said.
Ryan, the 2000 AP National Sportswriter of the Year, is a member of the New England Basketball and College Basketball Writers Hall of Fames. The 65-year-old began working at the Globe after graduating from Boston College in 1968, where he served as both a columnist and the Celtics beat writer.
Ryan said he plans to continue writing part-time for the Globe.