People & Places

After nearly 30 years as chairman of The Copley Press Inc., Helen K. Copley announced her retirement April 26. Succeeding her is her son, David C. Copley. Since 1997, David Copley, 49, has been president and chief executive officer of the company established in 1905 by his grandfather. Helen Copley, 78, took the helm of the company in 1973 when her husband, James S. Copley, died. Copley newspapers won two Pulitzer prizes while she was in charge. Helen Copley will stay on the board of directors as an active member and trustee of the family trusts that control the company stock. On April 30, Knight Ridder promoted Jim Crutchfield, general manager of the Akron Beacon Journal, to the post of president and publisher. Crutchfield, whose appointment took effect immediately, replaced John L. Dotson Jr. , who retired. Crutchfield, 53, was managing editor of the Akron Beacon Journal from 1989 to 1993, then became executive editor of the Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram from 1993 to 1997. In 1998, Crutchfield served as assistant to the publisher of Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc., and as director of single copy sales and distribution in 1999 before returning to Akron in January 2000 as general manager. Ike Massey, publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News and chief executive officer of the parent Los Angeles Newspaper Group, announced his resignation on May 1. Replacing him will be John Schueler, publisher of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis for the past three years. Elaine Kramer, former editor of The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., joined the Orlando Sentinel in June as managing editor. For the past year, Kramer, an award-winning reporter and editor, led a newsroom of more than 200 journalists at the Tribune-owned Morning Call. As managing editor of the 260,000-circulation Sentinel, Kramer oversees the routine news operations and all editorial content except the opinion pages. In addition to Kramer’s departure, The Morning Call saw a few more changes in the spring. Susan Hunt, vice president/general manager of Sun-Sentinel Company, was named president, publisher and CEO of the Allentown, Pa., newspaper. At The Morning Call, Hunt replaces Guy Gilmore, who became the newspaper’s publisher in April 2000. Television journalist David Brinkley’s name was added the Walk of Fame in his hometown of Wilmington, N.C., according to The Associated Press. “I’m not sure I deserve it, but I’ll take it,” Brinkley said to the crowd of more than 400 as he was awarded a plaque that matched the ceremonial sidewalk stone May 12. Brinkley, 80, spent the first 21 years of his life in Wilmington and started his journalism career with a job at the Morning Star. After working for the United Press and for NBC radio in the 1940s, he became one of television news’ first pioneers. He stopped regularly appearing on ABC in 1997. CNN Headline News anchor Lynne Russell, one of the first anchors appearing on CNN Headline News, resigned on May 18. An 18-year veteran of the network, Russell announced that she was resigning for personal reasons. “I need a mellower time now,” Russell told the Atlanta Journal and Constitution on May 16. “I need to do something else. It’s been 18 years of beat the clock.” Russell, 54, said. May was a month that saw many personnel changes at Sacramento, Calif.-based McClatchy Co., which owns the Star Tribune in Minneapolis and other newspapers. Gary Pruitt was promoted to chairman of McClatchy Co. In addition to his new role, Pruitt, 43, will continue to serve as president and chief executive of the company. He replaces Erwin Potts, who will remain on the board after serving six years as chairman. The leadership change was announced at McClatchy’s annual meeting in May in Sacramento. In his presentation to shareholders, Pruitt said McClatchy will “make lemonade out of this lemon of an economic environment” by continuing to increase revenue and control expenses. “We have no plans for layoffs, and that is in stark contrast to most of our peers,” he said. McClatchy Co. announced two promotions at its South Carolina newspapers on May 23. Jim Cato, editor of The Beaufort Gazette, assumes the additional title of publisher. Cato will accept the new title on July 2, when Publisher John Heath retires. Sara Borton, publisher of The Island Packet in Hilton Head, has been given the additional title of director of Lowcountry operations, which includes the Hilton Head and Beaufort papers. Cato, 55, has led the Gazette’s newsroom since 1980. Also on May 23, John Schueler, publisher of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis for the past three years, resigned his position. Robert Weil, vice president of operations for the McClatchy Co., will replace Schueler on an interim basis. A successor is expected to be chosen by the end of the summer. Tampa Tribune president and publisher Reid Ashe was promoted to the post of Media General’s president and chief operating officer on May 18. Ashe began his new job on July 1. The Richmond-based communications company also announced that Marshall N. Morton, senior vice president and chief financial officer, will add the role of vice chairman to his responsibilities. The San Francisco Chronicle announced in May that it had selected five editors to fill top positions at the daily. Narda Zacchino, 54, was promoted to senior editor after more than three decades reporting and editing for the Los Angeles Times. Andrew Ross, 55, Salon.com’s co-founder and its first managing editor, was named associate editor of content. Kenn Altine, 39, was named editor of the Sunday Chronicle. Mi-Ai Parrish, 30, The Arizona Republic’s Sunday editor before becoming deputy managing editor for features, was named associate editor of the Sunday Chronicle. Kenneth Howe, 50, was named business editor. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s new metro editor is Rita Hibbard, a longtime journalist with an extensive reporting and editing background. Hibbard, 47, oversees the P-I’s news-gathering efforts at local, state and regional levels. She replaces Kathleen Best, who had held the job since late 1996, but recently was named assistant managing editor for metro news at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Burl Osborne, publisher of The Dallas Morning News, retired in June and was replaced by James M. Moroney III, the newspaper’s parent company Belo announced May 24. Moroney, 44, also became chief executive at the Morning News. Robert W. Mong Jr. , 52, was promoted to president and editor, a title Osborne held before he became the newspaper’s publisher in 1991. Osborne, 63, who was given the title of publisher emeritus, will stay on the company’s board of directors until next year and chair The Belo Foundation. William “Butch” Ward, managing editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, accepted a buyout package and will be replaced by the paper’s deputy managing editor, Phillip Dixon. Dixon, 49, will assume his new role in mid-July, when Ward officially departs. Terms of the buyout package weren’t disclosed. The New York Times experienced some significant leadership changes in late May and June, starting with the retirement of executive editor Joseph Lelyveld. Lelyveld, who is leaving in September, will be replaced by editorial page editor Howell Raines, the newspaper announced May 21. Managing editor Bill Keller, 52, who had also been considered a candidate to succeed Lelyveld, agreed on June 19 to leave the post he’s held for four years and become an op-ed columnist and writer for The New York Times Magazine when Raines takes over the newsroom. Catherine Mathis, a spokeswoman for the Times, told The Associated Press that Keller will stay on as managing editor until his replacement is named. Meanwhile, Raines’ successor will be Times columnist Gail Collins, who will become the newspaper’s first female editorial page editor.

DEATHS

Arthur M. Barnes, 87, who directed graduate studies for 19 years at the University of Iowa’s School of Mass Communication, died April 27 in Melbourne, Fla. Barnes also headed Penn State’s journalism school from 1969 until he retired in 1979. Barnes edited the bulletin of the National Association of Radio News Editors in the late 1940s. He was named head of Iowa’s journalism graduate studies in 1950 and elected to the school’s Hall of Fame in 1964. Gloria Biggs, 89, an award-winning journalist who worked her way through the St. Petersburg Times, Palm Beach Post and Florida Today to become the first female publisher for Gannett, died June 12 in Annapolis, Md. of natural causes. Colleagues remembered her as a role model and mentor, an editor dedicated to fairness in the workplace, and a publisher who helped diversify the kinds of stories offered by the Gannett News Service. “She was a natural-born news junkie,” former USA Today Editor-in-chief John Quinn told Florida Today. “She had a sense of what people wanted to know and needed to know, and she had a great ability to translate that into meaningful information, not just impressive journalism.” Ginny Carroll, 53, a former reporter for The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., and Newsweek, who had just embarked on a teaching career in journalism, was found dead at her condominium in Chicago May 7. According to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, Carroll died of hypertensive cardiovascular disease. Since September, Carroll had taught at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., as an associate professor. At The News & Observer, she covered courts and politics from 1973 to 1984 and served as an assistant city editor at the paper’s Atlanta bureau in 1986. She later served as Detroit bureau chief for two years and as Houston bureau chief for eight years. Foster Davis, 61, a journalist whose work spanned three decades and three continents, died of cancer May 20 in Charlotte, N.C. From 1976 to 1992, Davis worked at The Observer in Charlotte in a number of capacities, including metro editor, assistant managing editor and writing coach. Davis left the paper in 1992 to become managing editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It is absolutely true that a decade after he left, I still quote him at least once a week in the newsroom,” Observer managing editor Frank Barrows said in the Observer’s obituary for Davis. Davis played an important role in shaping the Observer’s coverage of television evangelist Jim Bakker and his PTL ministry, which won a Pulitzer Prize for public service in 1988. James H. Jesse, 82, a former publisher of the Pensacola News Journal and one of the founders of Florida Today in Melbourne, died April 27 after a long bout with cancer. He was 82. During his career, he also served as the assistant publisher and managing editor of the Laurel (Miss.) Leader-Call, and editor and publisher of the Charlotte Herald in Punta Gorda. Jesse joined the then year-old Today in 1967 as head of its South Brevard County operations. In 1972 he was named to the newly created position of publisher. Jesse moved to Pensacola from Melbourne to become publisher of the News Journal in 1973. He then left Pensacola in 1978 to become publisher and president of the Nashville Banner. Art Petacque, 76, whose reporting for the Chicago Sun-Times earned him a Pulitzer Prize, died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital on June 6. Petacque had a reputation in the industry for persistence in getting the information he needed for stories. In the years when Chicago still had four major papers vying for scoops, every colleague had a story of him placing a call and identifying himself as a detective or the coroner. “He was the ultimate go-to guy,” former Sun-Times editor in chief Ken Towers told the Sun-Times. “When you needed the story and needed it fast, Art never let you down. He always came through. He was a classic reporter, of the old school.”

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