Thursday, March 04, 2010
Tips | N.J. publisher said out, now Kansas-bound
That's according to an anonymous poster at 1:52 p.m. in Real Time Comments, above. The publisher in question is Skip Hidlay of the Courier News and the Home News Tribune. I'm working off my iPhone, with limited web access. Can anyone confirm this -- or add details?
14 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
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E-mail from Tom Donovan, Asbury Park Press publisher & head of NJ Group:
ReplyDeleteIt is with mixed emotions that I am announcing this morning that Skip Hidlay is leaving Gannett after 14 years and joining The McClatchy Company as president and publisher of The Wichita Eagle, the largest newspaper in Kansas.
Skip joined Gannett as managing editor of the Courier-Post in Cherry Hill in 1996 after 10 years in a variety of reporting and editing roles with The Associated Press. He was promoted to executive editor of the Courier Post in August 1997 and then joined the Asbury Park Press as executive editor and VP/News in September 2002.
Skip became president and publisher of the Courier News and the Home News Tribune in April 2008 and worked with the team there to create operating efficiencies through a variety of consolidation projects, launched a new non-daily strategy, a new combined Web site, mycentraljersey.com and redesigned both dailies.
In his new role, Skip will be leading the print and digital operations of the Eagle, with a circulation of about 120,000 Sunday and 80,000 daily. He is being introduced to the staff in Wichita today.
Skip will return to New Jersey on Monday to work with me next week on a transition plan for the Courier News and the Home News Tribune. He will officially start his new position in Wichita the week of March 15.
In the interim, Managing Editor Paul Grzella will be in charge of the CN-HNT operation while we finalize the transition plan.
We will miss Skip and I know you will join me in wishing him all the very best in his new job.
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/04/1788518/new-publisher-named-for-eagle.html
ReplyDeleteIt's official. Too bad, he was a good guy.
ReplyDeletehttp://wichita.bizjournals.com/wichita/stories/2010/03/01/daily26.html?ana=yfcpc
I worked with Skip at the Courier-Post. He was a creative, energetic guy when there. Heard lots of bad stuff after he left the Courier-Post, but maybe the environment and the evil ways of Gannett did him in. As we all know, Gannett can ruin any newspaper (and they have done so to many) and can destroy people which they do very well. Best wishes to Skip in Kansas. Hope he meets Dorothy and Toto while there.
ReplyDeleteToo bad for the NJ group. The loss of Skip is going to have a HUGE impact. Just when are those in charge going to wake up? Yes, we are all on a sinking ship.
ReplyDeleteYes, Skip IS a good guy. That's why he is leaving the NJ Group. In order to survive, you have to get down and dirty to play the games they play.
ReplyDeleteskip is for real. he's a tough manager, for sure, but deep down a first-rate journalist. nice to see him get out from the thumb of NJ and the Gannett way of intimidation. the folks in kansas are lucky because he will be a good advocate for many causes ...
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone think there is another reason he left Gannett? Do you think he sees a brighter future with McClatchey in Kansas than staying at the CN/HNT? What kind of transition plan is Donahue speaking of?
ReplyDeleteRumor is one publisher for all the 4 papers, ie: APP, HNT, CN & DR. Perhaps that is the transition? We shall see...
ReplyDeleteUh... his name is Donovan, Tom - not Donahue, Phil. ;)
ReplyDeleteThe latest word on the grapevine is that Vineland printing is to be outsourced to make way for printing the Courier Post in Freehold. All pagination to be moved eventually to the Iowa RTC facility (along with ad production), which has now merged with the ad-building unit (something we had not heard about). Is this a corporate-wide move or Jersey specific? Anyone have any info?
ReplyDeleteThe pagination aspect will eventually be corporate-wide, as will production. Printing facilities will continually be shut down and outsourced to other local printing facilities until no one wants the newspaper anymore.
ReplyDeletethe courier-post printing in freehold? that will be an interesting invitation for the Teamster pressmen to come right into the Willowbrook Road facility ... not likely that they will be able to wrest printing out of the union-controlled operation in Cherry Hill ...
ReplyDeleteThe union won't have any say - they are still working without a contract nine months after their last ended. They have been asked to take a 15% pay cut. Now it's rumored that the company is refusing to negotiate.
ReplyDelete