The Detroit Free Press and Atlanta Journal-Constitution named their first female editors in history this spring. Carole Leigh Hutton, who helped lead the Detroit Free Press through a difficult strike and the long illness of its top editor, was named executive editor of Michigan’s oldest and largest newspaper on June 3. Hutton, 45, is the first woman in the paper’s 171-year history to become the top editor. She became managing editor in 1996 and now succeeds Executive Editor Robert G. McGruder, who died April 12. In announcing the appointment, Publisher Heath J Meriwether said Hutton has done just about everything in journalism, including reporting, editing and pasting up pages at a weekly newspaper in Massachusetts, as well as managing the Free Press staff of more than 300 people. Hutton stood out because of her track record at the paper and her leadership through difficult times, including the 1995 strike and McGruder’s 20-month battle with cancer, Meriwether said. Before joining the Free Press in August 1990, Hutton worked at the Times in Hammond, Ind., and the Detroit News. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution announced that Managing Editor Julia Wallace would become the first female editor on July 1. Wallace, 45, succeeds Ron Martin. Wallace, who served as an intern at the Atlanta Journal in 1977, joined the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last year. Prior to that, she was managing editor for the Arizona Republic in Phoenix. She also worked for the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore., and USA Today.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press has named two new managing editors. Chris Worthington has been appointed managing editor of local news and business, and Catherine Straight has been named managing editor of features and sports. Worthington has been senior editor of business and technology since 1997. He joined the Pioneer Press from the Dallas Morning News, where he was assistant business editor, assistant state editor and sports editor. He also has worked in Florida at the Fort Myers News-Press and the Fort Lauderdale News and in New York at Newsday. Straight came to the Pioneer Press last year after working at the Nashville Tennessean, where she was deputy managing editor. Previously, she worked in features and arts and entertainment and as a general assignment features reporter.
Amanda Bennett, editor of the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, has been elected to the board that awards Pulitzer Prizes. The announcement was made May 1 by Columbia University President George Rupp, The Associated Press reported. Columbia oversees the awards, journalism’s highest honor, under the will of publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Bennett, 49, became editor of the Herald-Leader last year after serving as a managing editor of The Oregonian of Portland. Meanwhile, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who has faced accusations of plagiarism over a 1987 book, resigned from the Pulitzer Prize board, Columbia University announced May 31.
David Laventhol, a veteran journalist, has been elected chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists, a nonprofit group monitoring the safety and freedom of journalists in more than 130 countries. Laventhol, 68, will succeed Gene Roberts in September, the group announced in late May. Roberts, who turned 70 in June, formerly was editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer and managing editor of The New York Times. Laventhol will remain publisher and editorial director of the Columbia Journalism Review, the media publication produced under the auspices of Columbia University’s journalism school. Laventhol formerly was publisher of the Los Angeles Times and Newsday, as well as one-time chairman of the Pulitzer Prize board.
Gregory L. Moore, 47, former managing editor of The Boston Globe, took over as editor of The Denver Post on June 10. The Post now is the highest-circulation daily newspaper in the United States with an African-American editor at the helm, according to Editor & Publisher. The Post’s Monday-Friday circulation is 350,274. Moore worked as a police reporter, political reporter, copy editor and city editor before rising to upper management. Colleagues and friends described Moore as a journalist’s journalist, a charismatic presence in the newsroom equally skilled at leading hard-nosed political investigations and lively coverage of arts and culture, The Post reported. Moore replaces Glenn Guzzo, 51, former Post editor who confirmed in May that he would be leaving his position at the newspaper by early June. Guzzo had been the Post’s editor since August 1999.
Chicago Sun-Times editors Joycelyn Winnecke and Bill Adee resigned in May to accept positions at the rival Chicago Tribune. Winnecke, 40, assumes a new post as associate managing editor for national news at the Tribune. Winnecke will manage the Tribune’s five national bureaus, including Washington, D.C. She was managing editor of the Sun-Times since 1999. Her husband, Adee, 37, will be sports editor/news at the Tribune. He had been the Sun-Times sports editor for nine years. Adee will focus mainly on the day-to-day news operation and will be one of two sports editors reporting to Dan McGrath, associate managing editor for sports, the Chicago Tribune reported. Both said they were not unhappy at the Sun-Times.
Orage Quarles III has been named Publisher of the Year by Editor & Publisher. Quarles is president and publisher of The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. In choosing Quarles, 51, for this honor, E&P cited his success in the past year – a very difficult one for the newspaper industry – in steering both his paper and his fellow publishers “through trying times.” Quarles was the first African American to serve as chairman of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). His term ended in April. Quarles is a 30-year veteran of the newspaper business and already has served as publisher of five newspapers. He first worked with the Gannett chain and now works with the McClatchy Co. of Sacramento, Calif.
Former CNN Washington correspondent Charles Bierbauer was appointed dean of the University of South Carolina’s new College of Mass Communications and Information Studies. Bierbauer, who started in July, will lead a combination of the university’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications and College of Library and Information Services, The Associated Press reported. Most recently, Bierbauer was a reporter and producer for a Discovery Channel documentary on the terrorist attacks. He worked for CNN from 1981-2001 and for ABC News from 1977-81. Previously, he worked for a WKAP radio in Allentown, Pa., The Associated Press and the Chicago Daily News.
DEATHS
Edward De Fontaine, a veteran newsman who was instrumental in putting The Associated Press’ radio network on the air, died April 24 in Alexandra, Va., after a long illness. He was 72. De Fontaine helped launch AP Radio in 1974 as its first assistant managing editor. He was promoted to managing editor in charge of the network’s editorial operations four years later. In 1982, he left AP Radio to join Voice of America, from which he retired in 1997 as director of broadcast operations.
John Chadwick, a former Associated Press reporter who covered the U.S. Senate for 30 years, died in suburban Bethesda, Md., in June. He was 89. Chadwick was regarded as notably soft-spoken and gracious, although he managed to anger Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson in 1955 with his persistent questioning about an immigration bill, the AP reported. Later that day, Johnson had a serious heart attack. “Ever after, Johnson said ‘John Chadwick caused his first heart attack,’ “ said Walter Mears, Chadwick’s last boss as chief of the AP’s Washington bureau. Chadwick covered the McCarthy hearings, civil rights legislation, presidential campaigns and Watergate.
Jack Buck, 77, the broadcaster who in nearly five decades behind the microphone became a St. Louis institution and one of the most recognizable voices in sports, died June 18. The Hall of Fame broadcaster underwent lung cancer surgery Dec. 5, then returned to Barnes-Jewish Hospital on Jan. 3 to have an intestinal blockage surgically removed. He never left the hospital, St. Louis Today reported. Nationally, Buck called everything from pro bowling to Super Bowls to the World Series for CBS, ABC and NBC. Buck was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame’s broadcaster’s wing in 1987.
Elizabeth Shanov, a veteran network broadcast journalist who covered stories ranging from the O.J. Simpson trial to the Super Bowl, died June 9 after a three-year battle with cancer, the AP reported. She was 49. Shanov spent 27 years as a reporter and producer for ABC, CBS and The Associated Press radio networks.
Del Sharbutt, a broadcast network announcer who became one of the most familiar voices on the air during the radio and early television era, died April 26 in New York. He was 90. Sharbutt had retired from broadcasting in 1976 after four decades as an announcer, newscaster and company spokesman, according to the AP. He worked for CBS and the Mutual Radio network. He also was a spokesman for Campbell’s soups, where he originated the familiar commercial, “Mmm-mm-good.”
William E. Linden Jr., a retired veteran CBS TV news producer, died in June. Linden Jr., 71, a news producer and director who retired in 1989 as Washington director for “CBS Evening News” with Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather, died of ventricular fibrillation June 5 at Reston Hospital in Virginia. Linden had been with CBS for 20 years when he retired, The Washington Post reported. After his retirement, he was producer and director for the Public Broadcasting System of the nomination hearings of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. While at CBS, his work included producing and directing “Face the Nation,” live coverage of the Watergate hearings on Capitol Hill, national political conventions, President Nixon’s resignation, Gerald Ford’s swearing-in as president and the Iran Contra hearings. He also was pool director for the three major networks for the Apollo space shots.
Leslie Midgley, another retired news producer for CBS, died of pneumonia June 19 at his home in Hartsdale, N.Y. He was 87. Midgley covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy for CBS News, producing four nights of instant specials on the president and the shooting. Midgley, along with Walter Cronkite, exhaustively reported on the Warren Commission’s report on the assassination. Midgley won many Emmy, Peabody and other broadcasting awards. He also covered the Vietnam War for a decade, including the fall of Saigon in 1975.
E. Keith Fuller, 79, who retired in 1985 as president of The Associated Press, died June 7 at his home in Chevy Chase, Md. He had Alzheimer’s disease, The Washington Post reported. He worked for the AP for nearly four decades and served as Little Rock bureau chief in the late 1950s. During that period, he oversaw its Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the tense September 1957 standoff over desegregation at Central High School. Fuller later became AP’s deputy general manager and then was promoted to president and general manager in 1976. During his tenure, Fuller added overseas bureaus and expanded the service to about 90 percent of the nation’s daily newspaper circulation, compared to 70 percent at the start of his career with the news service. He also helped negotiate the release of AP reporters jailed on espionage charges and reporters expelled from countries such as South Africa.
Joe Stroud, a strong voice for the environment and racial justice during the more than 25 years he led the editorial pages of the Detroit Free Press, died May 9. Stroud, who was 65, died after collapsing at Albion College, where he directed the Gerald R. Ford Institute for Public Policy and Service the past three years, according to the Free Press. The cause of death was not immediately known. Stroud retired as editorial page editor of the Free Press in 1998, The Associated Press reported. Stroud, an Arkansas native, began his career at the Free Press in 1968 after working at the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal & Sentinel and newspapers in Pine Bluff and Little Rock, Ark. He was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in 1998. “Joe Stroud was the voice and conscience of the Free Press for a quarter-century,” said Free Press Publisher Heath J Meriwether. “He wasn’t only the steward of an editorial tradition, but the creator of our newspaper’s stand for racial fairness, environmental protection and just financing of schools. We’ve lost one of our great voices.”
Norman Brant Chandler, a former Los Angeles Times executive and a member of the fifth generation of his family to establish a career with the newspaper, died May 3 at the age of 49. Otis Chandler, publisher of the paper from 1960 to 1980, said his eldest son died at his home in Ojai of complications from a brain tumor. An avid sportsman, Norman Chandler was training for a triathlon in 1989 when he collapsed and was diagnosed with the brain tumor. Despite failing health in the past decade, he pursued photography and painting and, until recently, kept up physical therapy that included swimming. He joined the Times in 1976 and worked in an executive training program that included reporter assignments at overseas Times bureaus. When he returned to Los Angeles, he sought more experience in the newspaper’s technical operations. He was named composing superintendent in 1987 and managed many departments integral to page production. The Chandler family controlled the Times for more than a century, beginning in 1884, according to The Associated Press. Tribune Co. purchased the Times and its parent company, Times Mirror, in 2000.
