Hubs | Nashville names first Design Studio director

Nashville Tennessean Executive Editor Mark Silverman sent the following memo to staff on Wednesday. It's about the appointment of the first chief of the five newspaper Design Studio hubs, rolling out over the next two years.

The other four hubs are in Asbury Park, N.J.; Des Moines; Louisville, Ky., and Phoenix. Nashville is the first of the Design Studios scheduled to get up and running, perhaps in March or April. Here's Silverman's memo:

Folks,

I'm pleased to announce that Jeff Glick has been named director of the Nashville design studio. He begins his new role in January.

As you all know, Jeff is a nationally known visual journalist. He has worked for national magazines and major newspapers, led newspaper redesign projects and served as creative director for one of Tribune Co.'s major properties. Jeff also has strong management skills, especially in the area of managing newshole in ways that work for both news and advertising departments He developed the design approach that allowed Murfreesboro, Clarksville and Jackson, Tenn., to launch their consolidated editing center, and he has worked on redesign projects for Gannett newspapers in the south and the west newspaper groups.

During the past six months, Jeff has been a part of a small team of Gannett design leaders who helped corporate select fonts and develop several overall design and management approaches for the studios. He also has worked with Jim Baumgarten, CCI folks, and others on the CCI system's set-up here.

Directors for the remaining four studios will be announced shortly.

We will be interviewing candidates for the number-two position at the studio -- creative director -- during the next several days. As we have discussed, the application process for the designer and wire copy editor positions at all five studios will open in January. At the same time, we will begin taking applications for Tennessean producer positions.

In early January, we will discuss some organizational adjustments on the Tennessean side that will help us move forward, and those discussions will make it easier to see the differences between design studio positions and Tennessean positions. Please let Meg or me know if you have suggestions, thoughts, or questions about any of the jobs -- especially as you consider which of the positions most interest you.

Please join me in congratulating Jeff.

-- Mark

Earlier: Amid hubs, Charles Apple urges copy editing stay local

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[Image: today's front page]